The NFL Team With the Most Consecutive Winning Seasons

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 5, 8:30AM EST

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NFL teams that have more than half a dozen winning seasons in a row are rare. One reason Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots is a coaching great is that the team had not had a losing season during this century. That streak ended last year. Coaching great Don Shula, who holds the record for the winningest coach in NFL history, posted winning seasons from 1983 to 1995, a record that almost certainly will never be matched. Among players, Tom Brady, who has been a quarterback in the league for two decades, has not played on a winning team every year over the course of his tenure, even though he is considered the greatest player in history.

To determine the NFL team with the most consecutive winning seasons, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data from Pro Football Reference on the history of each active NFL franchise. Seasons played in the AFL or other competitor leagues were not considered.

A lot of the teams we considered are old teams, and it certainly helps when you have been around a while. Many of the franchises, like the Steelers, Packers and 49ers, are some of the most iconic in the game and have come to represent the sport itself. Their achievements are celebrated and their stars are immortalized in sports history. Of course, sports dynasties are usually hated by just about everyone who isn’t one of their fans.

Some of the dynasties we looked at fell apart after a few key stars moved on or retired. Others managed to adapt with new players and continue their success. Football is a team game, but certain individuals can take a team from good to great. Star players often become the face of the team and the era of dominance. It is hard to imagine the Patriots of the past few decades without Tom Brady.
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The NFL team with the most consecutive winning seasons is Dallas Cowboys, with 20 seasons from 1966 to 1985. Their record during those seasons was 208-79-2 (72.0% wins).

Younger millennials and beyond have heard myths about the Dallas Cowboys being a football empire but never really seen proof. Turns out they did in fact have 20 winning seasons in a row, the longest streak there is. They won two Super Bowls during this streak and another three in the early and mid-1990s. After some business disputes (which started the Cowboys rivalry with the Redskins), the Cowboys were founded in 1959. They did not get off to a great start but began to turn it around in the mid-1960s and eventually won their first Super Bowl in 1971.

Click here to see all the NFL teams with the most consecutive winning seasons.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.