- The Los Angeles Rams are 3-9, riding a six-game losing streak, less than a year after winning the Super Bowl.
- Injuries and off-season departures have made this an ugly season for the Rams, the worst "championship hangover" in the last 40 years.
The "championship hangover" is a common sports affliction.
While some teams are able to resume their dominance the year after winning a championship, with hopes of building a dynasty, others slog through unremarkable follow-up seasons. Sometimes that means a quick playoff exit; sometimes it means missing the playoffs entirely.
Rarely, however, do teams go through the type of malaise the Los Angeles Rams are experiencing this season.
A narrow Week 13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks dropped the Rams to just 3-9, last place in the NFC West. After starting the year 2-1, they've gone 1-7 and are riding a six-game losing streak. Their .230 win percentage is the worst for a defending champ in major North American sports over the last 40 years.
The closest any other team in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL have come to the 2022 Rams' win percentage since 1982 is the lowly 1998-99 Chicago Bulls.
Those Bulls were going through the aftermath of "The Last Dance" of 1997-98. After completing a second "threepeat," Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Phil Jackson had all left the team, and the rebuilding Bulls floundered through a miserable 13-37 season in the lockout-shortened season.
In the NFL, the 1982 San Francisco 49ers had the second-worst winning percentage behind the Rams, going 3-6 in a strike-shortened season. The 49ers had gone 13-3 in 1981, winning the Super Bowl under the guidance of quarterback Joe Montana and head coach Bill Walsh. There was minimal roster turnover, but the Niners started 0-2 and any attempts to turn things around may have been hampered by the mid-season strike — the team didn't play any games from September 20 and November 20.
If we discount those 49ers and the unusual circumstances following their Super Bowl season, the 1999 Denver Broncos posted the second-worst winning percentage after a championship. After going 14-2 in 1998, the Broncos then went 6-10, a .375 win percentage, the following year. Most notably, quarterback John Elway had retired after winning the Super Bowl in 1998.
In baseball, the unglamorous distinction belongs to the 1998 Florida Marlins, who went 54-108, posting a .333 win percentage, after going 92-70 the year before. Similar to the Bulls in 1998, those Marlins held a fire sale, trading away several key players under a mandate from ownership to cut costs.
Meanwhile, hockey teams have stayed relatively stable over the last 40 years — the New York Rangers posted the NHL's worst title defense season since 1982, going 22-23-3 in 1994-95, just one year after winning the Stanley Cup. That, too, was part of a lockout-shortened season,
No other NHL team has finished below-.500 after winning the Cup in the last 40 years.
Things might get ugly in Los Angeles
Just 10 months ago, Rams head coach Sean McVay shouted, "Run it back!" at the team's Super Bowl parade.
GM Les Snead wore a shirt that read "Fuck them picks," a nod to the team's all-in strategy of trading future draft picks for win-now stars.
Now, in hindsight, the wisdom of that strategy is likely to be hotly debated.
The Rams' malaise can be attributed to several factors: One of them has been the departure of notable players.
Star defensive end Von Miller — for whom the team traded second- and third-round picks last season — left in free agency.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. tore his ACL in the Super Bowl, then left in free agency. (He remains un-signed.)
Stalwart offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth retired after the season.
Still, the Rams entered the 2022 season with plenty of talent. They weren't Super Bowl favorites, but few expected this drop-off.
Injuries have played a big part, too. The offensive line has been decimated — only one Week 1 starter is still in the same position. The team has started 11 different offensive linemen this season. McVay recently remarked that the Rams have likely started more linemen than any other team "in the history of the game."
Quarterback Matthew Stafford — the splashy off-season addition in 2021 who propelled the team to new heights — only played nine games this season because of two separate concussions. He was placed on the IR before Week 13 and is out for the season.
All-Pro wide receiver Cooper Kupp has been out since Week 10 because of an ankle injury and is currently on the Injured Reserve, unlikely to return again this season.
The Rams running back room has been a turnstile. Darrell Henderson, the team's starting running back in Week 1, initially won the job over Cam Akers, subsequently lost it, re-gained it when Akers requested a trade, then got cut when the team didn't trade Akers. Now Akers is the starter, but he has averaged a meager 3.3 yards per carry. Overall, five different running backs and four different receivers have carried the ball for the Rams this season.
Star defensive lineman Aaron Donald missed the first game of his career in Week 13 with a sprained ankle.
This litany of ailments is where trading those picks might haunt the Rams. They currently owe their first-round pick to the Detroit Lions because of the Stafford trade. They also don't have their fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-round selections this year.
That type of all-in approach is partially why the Rams have suffered this season: a lack of depth and promising young talent to develop.
Of course, many would argue a single championship makes it all worthwhile. The Rams are just feeling the after-effects especially hard.