Worst Team to Win a Championship

BYU. By far.
IMO, that team would not be able to defeat one college football champion since then. Most games would not be close.

 

The 2009-10 Blackhawks went 52-22-8 in the regular season and they swept the West's No. 1 seed Sharks in the conference finals. Captain Jonathan Toews was not only the playoff MVP but was named the top forward at the Olympics. They had a Norris Trophy-winning defenseman in Duncan Keith and were the deepest team in the NHL that season.

If anything, that team might be one of the best in the post-lockout era. It was that depth --- and screwing up qualifying offers --- that led to the team being broken up because of the salary cap. They gave up starting goalie Antti Niemi, Dustin Byfuglien, and two-thirds of their third line, which was made up of former Calder Trophy finalist Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ladd, who went on to captain the Thrashers/Jets.

They won a division that had three playoff teams by 10 points and their plus-62 goal differential was second in the league.

So no, they were not a weak champion.

 

didntdoit19 -

You may be right, but coming up with an NHL team was really the hardest. Usually when a team wins a Stanley Cup, they might win more than one or at least have a couple of good runs around the time they win the Cup. Maybe the fact that they are so deep skews a view because you don't think of someone like Lemieux with Pittsburgh in the 90s or Brodeur and Stevens with the Devils.

 

Sometimes I wonder if people on this board follow sports.

 

Obviously by Super Bowl standards it was bad, but the Raven offense sometimes gets a bit short-changed IMO. They were 14th in scoring, 16th in yards (both better than the 2002 Bucs).

Yes, Trent Dilfer was the QB, but it was still an offense with one of the 5 greatest OT of all time in his prime (Jonathan Ogden), a HOF tight end (Shannon Sharpe) and a 10,000-yard career rusher (Jamal Lewis).

 

Although to be fair, one of the three rookies was Ronnie Lott, and, the other two, Eric Wright and Carlton Williamson, were pretty well regarded. But your larger point is right on - that team was not of the same caliber as the '84 and '89 49er Super Bowl teams, although they did manage to win 13 games in the regular season.

 

That argument for Joe Montana's greatness begins with that no-name team.

 

Walsh had to dismantle that team pretty quickly due to age and collapse. The 1982 team was statistically bad on both fronts. Whole new backfield in 1983, with a rookie fullback and a rookie left tackle. Fewer than 20 members of the 1981 team were on the '84 juggernaut, obviously pre-free agency. Five no-name starters were out of the league by 1985. That was easily his best coaching job. And it was also the best chance for the Danny White Cowboys to go to the Super Bowl.

 

;D

 

Not difficult at all.

1938 Chicago Black Hawks

14-25-9. 37 points in a 48-game season. They had 35 points the year before and 32 the year after. Yet they won the Stanley Cup. Worst championship team in the history of sports.

 

While I agree that the Packers don't belong in that group of worst teams to win a championship, it isn't because of that injury list. Everybody brings up all those injuries, but I can think of only one player that was even considered essential (Finley) that made that IR list. And you could make the argument that not having Finley was a key in Rodgers spreading the ball around to other guys.
All the other guys on that list were non-critical players. You could perhaps make a case for Ryan Grant but one year later, he wasn't even asked to return to the team. All the other guys were nobodies. Easily replaced by the great depth that the Packers GM sometimes signed off the street...Erik Walden anyone?
Last year, the Packers DID lose a critical player: Nick Collins, and you saw what effect that had on that defense that dropped from top-10 to one of the worst ever in pass defense. Losing Cullen Jenkins to Philly didn't help that either.

 

Not going to check, but would be interesting to see how many of these "worst" candidates just happen to be in the past 30 years.