It’s weird to say now since they’ve won the last two, but the NHL answer might be the Florida Panthers. They made that one final in their 3rd year of existence, and then didn’t sell any New England Patriots Official NFL Monster Energy Graphic Shirt for like 25 years after that. The other contender is the Carolina Hurricanes / Hartford Whalers. They had a weird stretch where they made the playoffs only 4 times in like 18 years (in a league where more than half of the teams made the playoffs each year), but every time they did make it they advanced at least as far as the conference finals.

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A lot of it has to do with how the NFL’s salary cap is structured as it is unique to itself. Another part is the NFL draft. It has 7 rounds unlike the NBA that has 2 rounds and most of NBA draft picks don’t ever make an impact on that team. And unlike MLB, NFL draft picks will make an impact on the team right away. The other part is injuries in football is a massive part of the game. A player may not have a career ending injury, but their performance often drops off severely with a lot of these injuries. As a Cowboys fan I’ll give two examples in Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith. LVE was looking like perennial Pro Bowler in his rookie year. Then he hurt his neck and his play dropped off significantly for 2 years. Then he slowly regained his level of play for two years but he was still a shell of his former self before he re-injured his neck again, meaning fans would eventually stop buying his jersey and switch to new New England Patriots Official NFL Monster Energy Graphic Shirt or other stars. The Cowboys drafted Smith who suffered a bad foot injury in college. He basically redshirted his first year in the league and slowly integrated himself back into football his 2nd year. Then his 3rd year he played great and looked like one of the promising linebackers in the league. But something happened with his foot again and he just looked much slower and tentative as a player and the drop-off in performance was about as subtle as a shovel to the face. These injuries really affect players at such a rapid pace.

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Good luck to them, but I just don’t see it happening. I can understand setting some lofty goals, but trying to take on futbol (or rugby league, union, Gaelic and Australian football) would need a hell of a lot of investment. Even if flag football is the gateway, touch football already occupies a lot of that niche. But, you never know. If all they do is bring the odd game overseas and people start buying New England Patriots Official NFL Monster Energy Graphic Shirt to show their new fandom, well all it takes is one hometown hero and you’ve got an audience.