With their win, the Packers reached 787 franchise victories over the workforce’s prolonged historical past. As it occurred, they and the Bears have been tied at 786 getting into the sport, lending a significance it in any other case would have lacked.

It does elevate an attention-grabbing query, although: Just how do different groups stack up over their very own franchise histories? For each Green Bay Packers, in any case, there’s an Atlanta Falcons, which has greater than 100 extra losses than wins over its franchise historical past. Who, then, are the most effective energetic franchises in historical past? And, extra enjoyable, who’re the worst?

Sign up for How To Read This Chart, a weekly data newsletter from Philip Bump

Immediately you may see that we get into some bother. The Washington Post’s native baseball workforce is the Washington Nationals. Do we rely the Montreal Expos within the franchise historical past? The Washington Senators, although they moved to Minnesota to develop into the Twins?

The correct and pure strategy to resolve this query is to punt it to another person, so we selected to make use of franchise definitions established by the encyclopedic sports activities websites collected underneath the Sports Reference umbrella. So the Expos’ (few) wins get added to the Nats’, and the Twins are saddled with the Senators’ (many) losses.

From there, it’s simple: Collect knowledge on the all-time win-loss information of groups within the skilled baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey and soccer leagues by way of Monday and type them by win share. The result’s under. For causes that may quickly develop into obvious, groups alongside the Philly-to-D.C. axis have been highlighted.

As you skimmed, you hopefully seen that we delineated the groups that had successful percentages above .500 and people under — a gaggle that may determine extra prominently a bit additional down on this article.

You most likely additionally seen {that a} shocking variety of Major League Soccer groups with excessive, and low, successful percentages. That’s a byproduct of a smaller pattern. Because these groups are newer, they’ve fewer wins and fewer losses. That’s exacerbated by the truth that soccer matches can finish in attracts (referred to as ties for the remainder of this text for the sake of consistency). With fewer matches performed, it’s simpler to have a better win share general. Win two of three video games and also you’re at .667, for instance. Win 666 of 1,000 video games and your win share is barely decrease.

You can see that clearly if we present the identical rating as above, however with precise wins and losses displayed. You also can see that baseball franchises are the champions of video games performed for the apparent causes of longevity and games-per-season.

If we restrict our successful share evaluation to groups which have performed a minimum of 1,000 video games, we find yourself with prime 5 groups in every sport that most likely look acquainted.

Even if the Bears had gained Sunday, the Packers nonetheless would have had a better successful share, provided that they’ve fewer losses. With that, allow us to flip from historic winners to historic losers.

You may need seen that groups from alongside the Philly-D.C. hall tended to land within the below-.500 house of that first chart. Well, because it seems, two of these groups — the Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles — find yourself the furthest from .500. The Orioles must win greater than 1,000 extra video games than they lose earlier than they’re breaking even over franchise historical past; the Phillies must win greater than 1,100.

When we take a look at how far groups are from .500, although, we once more see that Major League Baseball is overrepresented. The Phillies have been round for effectively greater than a century and now play 162 video games a 12 months! Even if that they had averaged simply 10 extra losses than wins over that interval — a not-too-embarrassing 76-86 document annually — you arrive at a internet deficit of 1,000 video games over 100 years.

So let’s shift the context slightly. Baseball groups play 162 video games a 12 months, that means that, if the Phillies had a number of good seasons — which … is unlikely, however work with us right here — they’d eat considerably into that deficit. So let’s contemplate that metric as a substitute. What groups would want probably the most good seasons to make up for his or her win-loss deficit?

The winner, by far, is the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. If the Cardinals gained each regular-season sport from now till 2034, they might be, ultimately, at .500. By this metric, the Phillies are simply the fifth-least profitable franchise in American skilled sports activities.

Now let’s speak concerning the Washington Commanders. You’ll discover above that they want lower than one good season to achieve .500. In reality, they want simply three extra wins than losses to hit .500 over franchise historical past — not going this season, however potential. And for a workforce at present on the backside of its division, an imaginary metric price celebrating. The Packers can clarify how good that may really feel.