Davante Adams’ five conference championship losses only topped by this NFL legend

It’s a conversation that no athlete ever wants to be a part of. The debate of the greatest to never win a title. It happens in basketball with Charles Barkley, in football with Dan Marino and in baseball with Ted Williams. Those players went to the Finals, or the World Series or the Super Bowl, but there are some great players who have never even had the chance to do reach the final stage of the season.

Adams NFC title game heartbreaking

That’s the case with Davante Adams, who just lost out on the chance to make his first Super Bowl in what has been a Hall of Fame career. His Los Angeles Rams were four points away from beating the Seattle Seahawks and moving on to the biggest day of the football season. Unfortunately for him and the Rams, they came up short and missed out on a chance to play in Santa Clara, California in Super Bowl LX.

You could see the disappointment in the eyes of Adams who is a three time First-Team All Pro, a six time Pro Bowler and the only player to lead the league in touchdown receptions with three different teams. After the loss in Seattle, Adams was trying to choke back tears in the locker room. “It’s tough to focus on that right now. So it’s a tough moment that we’re in right now,” said Adams, via Arash Markazi of The Sporting Tribune. “So, just process the emotions of this and then worry about that. I mean, obviously, I love this team, love what this team is about and the fight that we had all year. It just sucks to come up short.”

This is now the fifth time Adams has been to a conference championship game, and he has lost all five. Adams went to his first NFC Championship with Green Bay in his rookie season back in 2014. The Seattle Seahawks beat Adams for the first time in his NFC Championship debut, but he would go to the conference championship three more times with Green Bay. The Packers made it to the penultimate game of the season in 2016, 2019 and 2020, losing to the Atlanta Falcons first, then the San Francisco 49ers and finally the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Adams is not alone

Not many athletes know what it’s like to come that close to the Super Bowl, or a championship of any kind and come up short that many times. The only NFL player who has experienced even more heart break than Adams was former Heisman Trophy Winner John Cappelletti. He lost a total of six conference championships and never saw the Super Bowl before retiring in 1983.

Capaletti had a brilliant college career with Penn State before being taken by the Los Angeles Rams in the first round of the 1974 NFL Draft. Like Adams, he made the conference championship in his rookie year. LA lost to Minnesota. The Rams would get the the same stage of the playoffs for the following two years, but lost in 1975 to the Dallas Cowboys and in 1976 to the Minnesota Vikings again.

He and the Rams went back to the NFC Championship game in 1978, but would lose to the Dallas Cowboys. Capaletti missed the 1979 season with a groin injury which just so happens to be the season the Rams got over the hump and won the NFC Championship before losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. He left for San Diego for the final the four years of his career and made the AFC Championship in 1980 and 1981 but the Chargers lost to the Oakland Raiders in his first first year in San Diego and then the Cincinnati Bengals then next year.

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