Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco seems to be channeling his inner Rodney Dangerfield these days, proclaiming he gets no respect. “I’m sure if we win, I’ll have nothing to do with why we won,” Flacco said before his Ravens team defeated the Houston Texans 20-13 to advance to Sunday’s AFC Championship against the New England Patriots.
Flacco, 27 and in his fourth NFL season, was doing his best Dangerfield imitation, which might get him a few laughs in a comedy club but goes over like a lead balloon in the NFL.
According to Flacco, the reason he doesn’t get respect is everything but him. Maybe it’s the play calling or Ray Rice. Take your pick.
“We’re going to do our best to try to win it, and it doesn’t really matter what the reason is,” Flacco told reporters last week. “You guys want everybody to be Aaron Rodgers and be Tom Brady, but you guys do realize those guys’ [teams] don’t run the ball.
“If we try to do that, the criticism that we’d take around here would be ridiculous. You guys want an elite quarterback. You have to stop complaining when we go out there and throw the ball 60 times a game.”
Flacco’s collar might be getting a little tight, particularly after what teammate Ed Reed said earlier this week on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
“I think Joe was kind of rattled a little bit by that [Houston] defense,” Reed said. “I think a couple times he needed to get rid of the ball. I don’t know how much of the play calling he could have made audibles or anything like that, checks or whatnot, but it just didn’t look like he had a hold on the offense.”
Reed may have been foolish to raise those questions publicly, but he was right. Flacco went 14-for-27 for 176 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions against the Texans — not a terrible statistical outing and surely one of Flacco’s best among dismal playoff performances. But if you watched the game, Flacco never did seem quite in control in the pocket.
If Flacco wants to be regarded like Rodgers or Brady, he might want to take a page from their book of respect and how to earn it.
Rodgers sat for several years behind Brett Favre and his massive ego, and throughout the politics of that process and replacing Favre, he never whined about criticism. And Sunday’s opposing quarterback, Brady, used being a sixth-round pick as motivation to climb to the top of the NFL quarterback mountain without complaining about any lack of respect along the way.
If Flacco wants that level of respect, he will have to earn it Sunday.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
