The Worst NFL Team Owners of All Time

Updated July 21, 2023 26.9K views

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8.4K votes

1.9K voters

4 reranks

The worst NFL team owners of all time are those men and women who were the best at being the worst professional football team owners ever. These National Football League owners alienated fans, meddled in important team decisions and up and moved beloved teams out from under the cities that adored them. If there was a guide to how to own an NFL team, these examples would be in the "don't do this" category. Best NFL team owners of all time these are not.

For many of these bad NFL team owners, it was one big event or decision that put them among the worst owners ever. Take Art Modell for example. Despite promising that he'd never do such a thing, his choice to move his Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore, Maryland, right under the nose of everyone involved, is still seen as one of the most offensive actions done by an NFL team owner ever. But Modell isn't the only owner to move a team with others like Rams owner Georgia Frontiere and Colts owner Robert Irsay also disappointing fans with sudden team relocations.

In other cases, it was a career full of meddling with team business and disappointing team performance that earned the owners places on this list. Few can deny that the Oakland Raiders were abysmal at best under the ownership of Al Davis or that Dan Synder will be remembered for doing more harm than good at the helm of the Washington Redskins.

So between the current NFL team owners who disappoint fans on a regular basis to those historically awful owners who made unpopular decisions that are still not forgotten, these men and women will be remembered as the worst NFL team owners of all time.

Most divisive: Ken Behring

Over 1.9K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Worst NFL Team Owners of All Time

1
723 votes
Daniel Snyder
Age: 59
Washington Redskins
2
491 votes
Spanos Family
Los Angeles Chargers
3
371 votes
The Ford Family - Detroit Lions
4
240 votes
Woody Johnson
Age: 77
5
395 votes
Mike Brown
Age: 88
Cincinnati Bengals
6
315 votes
Robert Irsay
Dec. at 73 (1923-1997)
Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts
7
219 votes
Randy Lerner
Age: 62
Cleveland Browns
8
595 votes
Jerry Jones
Age: 81
Dallas Cowboys
9
416 votes
Art Modell
Dec. at 87 (1925-2012)
Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens
10
173 votes
Hugh Culverhouse
Dec. at 75 (1919-1994)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

11
193 votes
Bud Adams
Dec. at 90 (1923-2013)
Tennessee Titans
12
160 votes
Stephen M. Ross
Age: 83
Miami Dolphins
13
221 votes
Denise DeBartolo York
Age: 74
San Francisco 49ers
14
77 votes
Jimmy Haslam
Age: 70
15
131 votes
Victor Kiam
Dec. at 74 (1926-2001)
New England Patriots
16
197 votes
Georgia Frontiere
Dec. at 80 (1927-2008)
Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams
17
143 votes
Norman Braman
Age: 91
Philadelphia Eagles
18
343 votes
Al Davis
Dec. at 82 (1929-2011)
Oakland Raiders
19
109 votes
Billy Sullivan
Dec. at 82 (1915-1998)
Boston Patriots
20
38 votes
Wayne Weaver
Age: 89

21
100 votes
Ken Behring
Age: 95
Seattle Seahawks
22
86 votes
John W. Mecom Jr.
23
113 votes
Carroll Rosenbloom
Dec. at 72 (1907-1979)
Baltimore Colts/Los Angeles Rams
24
240 votes
Robert Kraft
Age: 82
25
82 votes
Clark Hunt
Dec. at 40 (1965-2006)
26
147 votes
Ralph Wilson
Dec. at 95 (1918-2014)
Buffalo Bills

Spanos Family

The Ford Family - Detroit Lions

Hugh Culverhouse

Denise DeBartolo York

Jimmy Haslam

Wayne Weaver

Robert Kraft