On the NFL Network program “Sound FX,” players and coaches are mic’d up to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at games. In this week’s edition, Super Bowl XLVII was covered. Ravens and 49ers players and coaches were featured, most prominent among them Joe Flacco, Patrick Willis, Ray Lewis, and the brothers Harbaugh.
While everyone is always getting on Flacco’s case for being “boring” or not having enough personality, he actually came across as one of the more interesting and charismatic of all those shown.
One instance in particular stood out for many viewers (NFL.com even put up an article about it this morning).
When the Ravens and 49ers were lining up for the game’s final play – a free kick from punter Sam Koch to San Francisco return man Ted Ginn, Jr. – Flacco was shown on the sidelines trying to rally his offensive teammates to quite an interesting cause.
Flacco says to bestie Dennis Pitta, “If [Ginn] starts to break it, go tackle him,” suggesting that the tight end throw caution – and the rule book – to the wind to try to seal a Ravens win.
Pitta seemed confused.
Joe attempted to explain his logic some more, saying “I don’t know, what else can…I mean, they might be able to get a touchdown on that, but I don’t know.”
Flacco then moves down the sideline, imploring guys like Matt Birk and Michael Oher to do the same.
“Hey, if he breaks it, if he busts this for some reason, tackle him. Go tackle him! I don’t know what the rule is on that, but …”
Birk turned it back on Joe, asking “why can’t you,” to which Joe replied that “I’m going to!”
Unfortunately for Joe, there is indeed a rule in the books that stipulates that, if he and his teammates had ran onto the field, the officials would have the option to award the 49ers a touchdown.
Flacco was saying all of these things tongue-in-cheek (he can be seen holding his shoulder pads on the sideline during the final play, looking in no way ready to run onto the field) and it was very entertaining to see him so nervous about the last play.
He was simply saying what was going through the head of just about every Ravens fan – do EVERYTHING in our power to end this game right now!
A “Stanford band” type situation could have erupted, with Ravens players coming off the sideline, the team’s band and cheerleaders and fans streaming out of the stands to help…all hands on deck.
This is our time, and we were ready to go to extreme measures to make sure the 49ers didn’t take it from us.
