The 29 most hopeless fan bases in professional sports

CLEVELAND, OH - DECEMBER 13, 2015: Cleveland Browns fans hold up signs reading 'HELP' during a game against the San Francisco 49ers on December 13, 2015 at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland won 24-10. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images) /

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Los Angeles Raiders managing general partner Al Davis encourages his team before their 38-9 win over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984 at Tampa Stadium. (Photo by Sylvia Allen/Getty Images) /

12. Oakland Raiders

Last championship: 1983

Last winning season: 2002

The Oakland Raiders are essentially the Dallas Cowboys if everything had gone wrong all the time. They are football’s most unsteady organization, where everything seems to constantly be in flux and nothing — or no one — is safe for long.

For years, their primary focus has not been the on-field product, but rather what headline-grabbing scheme their owner would pull off next. And while Al Davis has passed on, his legacy of pure pandemonium — of being full-time owner/part-time coach/part-time GM/full-time disruptor always usurping the focus — continues to shape the team’s image to this day.

Mind you, all has not always been bad for the Raiders. They won the 1967 AFL Championship and have tacked on three more Super Bowls in the NFL as well. As recently as the early 2000s, the Silver and Black won three consecutive AFC West titles and appeared in the 2002 Super Bowl. Raiders football has some tradition, as Jim Plunkett, Howie Long, Marcus Allen, Tim Brown, Rich Gannon, Charles Woodson, and Bo Jackson have all helped shape the hardnosed Raider image that their fanbase so imbibes.

While they’re currently stuck in a 13-year streak of playoff misses and sub-.500 records, the team’s black-clad fans continue to attack the turnstiles (as well as rival fans), despite having to do so in sport’s biggest dump, the Oakland Coliseum.

However, the petulance of the team’s leader overruled the sometimes-hot, sometimes-cold play of the team. Over the past 45 years, the Raiders have moved from Oakland to Los Angeles (for 12 years) and then back to Oakland, before now looking to escape to Las Vegas under Mark Davis, Al’s defacto successor.

The son has also inherited his father’s taste for having a perpetually hot seat underneath his coaches (there have been 10 different skippers in the last 15 years), which insures the legacy of the nomadic Raiders will last well into the future.

Next: 11. Buffalo Sabres