Most depressing Argo season of all-time

[Will]

What is the most depressing Argo season of all-time.

Try and eliminate recency bias (if possible) though this season is definitely a candidate.

[AngeloV]

For me, definitely 2000. JI Albrecht and John Huard. Doesn't get any lower than that. I felt back for Sherwood Shwarz. I met him at the Argos fan day and he was a genuinely nice man.

[Will]

I voted 2009 for several reasons:

I suppose we would've been foolish to expect the team to rebound after the 4-14 debacle in 2008 especially given how much of that defence had been turned over. Argos hired Bart Andrus who we all knew was way too inexperienced to be a CFL head coach and although he said the right things early on it was pretty clear that he was in over his head.

You saw the departure of Arland Bruce III due to a spat with Andrus. While hindsight suggests that this was probably not on Andrus, it nevertheless felt awful when it happened. I believe that Byron Parker's return to the Argos wasn't handled well and he was shipped off to Edmonton.

You also saw the falling apart of the C&S group, and again hindsight shows that the ownership group had major issues, but at the time we didn't know everything and had assumed that they were building goodwill from 2004 to 2007 which fell apart leading to Braley's ownership which is where we sort of end up now.

Plus the team was awful. Full stop.

[paulwoods13]

2000 was the only time in my life I actually boycotted the Argos (until Huard was fired), so that gets my vote.

[AngeloV]

2000 was the only time in my life I actually boycotted the Argos (until Huard was fired), so that gets my vote.

I didn't boycott, but I can say it's the only season where I left more than 1 game before the 3 minute warning.

[R.J]

I voted 2016 because the expectations were extremely high, and to put it mildly the team imploded.

92 reminds me of 2018 since it came off a Grey Cup and losing their starting QB seemed to affect the entire team. 93 and 95 were "expected" seasons; as was 2009. 2008 was another "depressing" season since there were high expectations, and a lot was made of acquiring Joseph; also Pinball's first season in the big chair.

[1971GreyCup]

1972

[Mightygoose]

I went with 2016 since it was a new start for the franchise off the field and expectations we're mismanaged. With this and the Grey Cup turning into a bust and laughing stock, I believe it led to the Heath/Willy trade and the on field implosion took off from there.

If I we're to give a second place vote, I'd go with 1992. 3rd Place 2009.

[jerrym]

Overall, the 31 year drought between Grey Cup wins in 1952 and 1983 was wretched because even when they had very good teams they blew it. The worst years for me have been the numerous times the Argos have been at or near the top of the league, only to see them then fall to the bottom within a year or two because of poor managerial/coaching decision-making.

[Will]

I voted 2016 because the expectations were extremely high, and to put it mildly the team imploded.

92 reminds me of 2018 since it came off a Grey Cup and losing their starting QB seemed to affect the entire team. 93 and 95 were "expected" seasons; as was 2009. 2008 was another "depressing" season since there were high expectations, and a lot was made of acquiring Joseph; also Pinball's first season in the big chair.

Expected in hindsight or was it expected pre-season?

[ArgoGabe22]

2009. I actually found the games to be boring. At least this season, I will admit to leaving each home game being entertained, even if the team lost.

[R.J]

Expected in hindsight or was it expected pre-season?

Hype around Ham and Austin I guess. Can't speak to 93, but in 95 I don't recall the defence being good enough to win either, and Faragalli was a first time Head Coach IIRC.

In hindsight I think Obie was vastly overrated as a CFL GM.

[argolio]

1992 really pissed me off. The definitive game was in October at Winnipeg when we blew a big lead. Just killed the team. We ended up 0-9 on the road.

2016 was also depressing because of how the promise of moving to BMO went up in smoke.

From a historical standpoint it's hard to get more depressing than 1953-81. In 29 seasons, we had 15 double digit loss seasons and only 7 above .500. The few good seasons in that era all ended with playoff failure, some in epic fashion.

[OV Argo]

Lots of seasons to choose from, but I think I'd have to go with 2016 - like Argolio says, big disappointment & let-down in a year to have excitement moving into a new stadium; also, horrible GM-ing & coaching with whacked or laughable personnel decisions (trading for Drew Willy ???; cutting 4 receivers at one time ??? = WTF ?) and just real bad/sad play.

[Argo57]

Lots of seasons to choose from, but I think I'd have to go with 2016 - like Argolio says, big disappointment & let-down in a year to have excitement moving into a new stadium; also, horrible GM-ing & coaching with whacked or laughable personnel decisions (trading for Drew Willy ???; cutting 4 receivers at one time ??? = WTF ?) and just real bad/sad play.

2016 for reasons you said OV followed closely by 2018 which has been a total piss off when considering the track record of our GM and HC.

[OV Argo]

How bout 81 ?

Conredge at QB, Minter at RB; Pearson, Greer, Muller in the receiving corps; Jim Corrigall & Bruce Clark on the D-line (as good a 1-2 punch at DE & DT as you can get in the CFL); the Big Z booming punts ... and they go 2 -14 ? Willie Wood dumb-@$$ coaching = sad Argo days.

[Argo57]

How bout 81 ?

Conredge at QB, Minter at RB; Pearson, Greer, Muller in the receiving corps; Jim Corrigall & Bruce Clark on the D-line (as good a 1-2 punch at DE & DT as you can get in the CFL); the Big Z booming punts ... and they go 2 -14 ? Willie Wood dumb-@$$ coaching = sad Argo days.

1981 was a futile season but Argo fans had become numb to the teams failure so it was the norm hence the shock and excitement created with the success of the 1982 and 83 Argos under OB’s reign.

[mchesher03]

Hard to eliminate recency bias but I’ve tried:

1. 2016 – was supposed to be such a high, I can still remember the splash of the opening game, the tailgating and the thinking that this is what it’s going to be like now, this is so cool and then the team just stinking out the joint. The Heath trade while still on the high of that improbable win against Hamilton seals this one in at #1 for me.
2. 2000 – worst year of Argonauts football in my lifetime, but not the most depressing. That BC game at home was just morbidly sad, what was it 54-1? It was obvious even to my young self that the team had folded up and quit on Huard there. Then poor delusional Sherwood coming out for the ill-fated “lucky loonie” draw and hoping the next game will be a sell out – it had almost got into comedy hour at that stage.
3. Tie – this year and 2008 – maybe I was delusional both times, but I went into both years thinking we had a chance to compete for back to back titles in both instances. Just slightly off!

In less depressing terms, my favourite years of Argonaut fandom:

1. 2012 – that East Final in Montreal will likely always be my favourite Argo game. My Dad was pretty adamant to go to it (unlike him a bit) but I remember leaving my in-laws at 4am to get to my parents and drive to montreal for that game. So cool. The Grey Cup game was pretty good too J
2. 2017 – the Grey Cup Game was my second favourite game of all-time, with the 2017 East Final at #3.
3. 1997 – man I can still close my eyes and see Pinball catching that pass, the montreal defenders running into each other and Pinball getting in the endzone.

[paulwoods13]

Tie – this year and 2008 – maybe I was delusional both times, but I went into both years thinking we had a chance to compete for back to back titles in both instances. Just slightly off!

Do you mean 2005? We could not go back-to-back in 2008, since Sask won in 2007.

[Will]

1992 really pissed me off. The definitive game was in October at Winnipeg when we blew a big lead. Just killed the team. We ended up 0-9 on the road.

2016 was also depressing because of how the promise of moving to BMO went up in smoke.

From a historical standpoint it's hard to get more depressing than 1953-81. In 29 seasons, we had 15 double digit loss seasons and only 7 above .500. The few good seasons in that era all ended with playoff failure, some in epic fashion.

You aren't going to like this, since the move from CNE to SkyDome in 1989-2018 (roughly same time as above):

Winning Seasons: 10 (1990, 1991, 1996-1997, 2004-2007, 2013, 2015)
Losing Seasons: 14 (1989, 1992-1995, 2000-2002, 2008-2009, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2018) all double digits
.500 seasons: 6 (1998-1999, 2003, 2009, 2012, 2017)

The only difference is 6 Grey Cups in that span as opposed to the drought period of 1983-1991.