The Five NFL Franchises You Won't Meet in Heaven

With parity the way it is in the NFL, there is no reason franchises should go extended periods of time without deep playoff runs. However, these franchises prove that even in a league set up for mediocrity people can still find a way to ruin things. It's not necessarily complete suckage in the past decade or so that will get organizations on this list, but the inability to properly run a franchise and put teams that meet the franchises potential out there on the field. These franchises have proved over the past decade that they can not run things the way they need to be run. Some have owners that fail to leave the football decisions to the football people, others have terrible personnel people incapable of making said football decisions, while others just seem like they can't do anything right with their team.

Honorable Mention: Falcons: I feel sorry for Arthur Blank, I really do. This man has tried to do everything to put a consistent winner out there on the field. But so far he's just been screwed over left and right. The man stood up for Michael Vick since he drafted him, only to see Michael Vick bring down the franchise with him. He hired a high-profile college coach to try to improve Michael Vick as a quarterback. But he got screwed over by the coach as well. The franchise looks like it will have to rebuild for several years to become a contender again. And while Blank has made some poor decisions to lead to it, its hard to not feel bad for an owner that only wants the best for his team and their fans.

5) Bengals: For these team you can really point the finger at any one person. The simple fact is that the organization is flawed as a whole. The team is made up of thugs who have been part of over a dozen arrests in the past two years (WR Chris Henry five times himself). Their star player is at odds with the coach and is demanding a trade. Their coach is hailed as a defensive genius but can't turn around one of the worst defenses in the league. On the field the players play undisciplined football, costing their team with unnecessary penalties. Off the field, besides their arrests, they appear to be more worried about trash talking than following a proper game plan. With the thugs on their roster, the state of the relationship between the coaches, players and front office, this team is going nowhere fast.

4) Lions: How Matt Millen still has a job as an NFL GM is beyond anyone's guess. The man simply has no clue as to how to build a football team. Using four at of five straight first-round draft picks on wide receivers will not get you many wins in this league. Especially when you don't get a quarterback to get them a ball or a line to protect that quarterback. If the ball never reaches the receivers what good are they? This team will never be as good as they could be with the receiving corps they have if Matt Millen doesn't learn to build from the inside out. Only time (and this year's draft) will tell.

3) Cardinals: This team appeared to be heading in the right direction. A good head coach, a young quarterback, veteran running back, stud wide-outs, and a scrappy defense. But just when things seemed like they would be working out, news leaked out that Larry Fitzgerald (one of the receivers) is due to receive over $16 million a year as his base salary average for next two years. His salary is so high due to the back-loaded, incentive laden way his contract was structured. How could the front office agree to a contract where this was even a plausible scenario. What kind of incentives do you give a first round draft pick? Shouldn't he be reaching these marks anyway as a star-player. Incentives are usually reserved for older players as a way to get them to sign to a lower base salary in order to save cap space. The Cardinals front office is therefore on this list for this contract and this contract alone (oh and the fact that they haven't reached the playoffs in a decade).

2) Redskins: Dan Snyder is an idiot (see current head coaching fiasco as well as inability to not trade draft picks for expensive over-rated past their prime players).

1) Raiders: Al Davis is an even bigger idiot (example here.)