“I assume everybody thinks they’re a top-five quarterback. I mean, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’m top five, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’d be very successful at my job if I didn’t feel that way. I mean, C’mon?”
That was Joe Flacco back in April of 2012. This was three months after Lee Evans cost the Ravens the AFC Championship and 10 months before Joe Flacco became the Super Bowl 47 MVP after an 11 TD, 0 INT performance in the playoffs.
Flacco’s statement speaks for itself. The principles behind that statement should be the basis for anyone who wants to succeed in life, not just quarterbacks. It’s common sense. That kind of confidence breeds success. But because we live in the world of social media and in a world where journalism is dead, so to speak, sports media pundits went off on Flacco for making “ridiculous” claims.
One of those dimwits happened to be Mike Florio.
Florio is a contributor to NBC’s “Football Night in America” television show and is the creator of Profootballtalk.com. He’s also known for being wrong with just about everything he says. If you have brain cells to kill, I’d recommend following him on Twitter, but be careful. Our own Tony Lombardi has been blocked by Florio for calling him out a few times.
That said, here is how Florio overreacted to Flacco’s statement.
“….But if he thinks he’s the best quarterback, then he necessarily thinks he deserves to be paid more than any other quarterback. If that’s the case, Flacco will be waiting for a while.”
I laughed. Like really hard.
Lots of things are wrong with that take. If you excuse the hyperbolic conclusion-jumping that Florio does (I have no idea why he brings up how much Flacco thinks he deserves to be paid), he still puts his foot in his mouth with the “Flacco will be waiting for a while” statement. I guess a while is less than one year. Maybe it is in Florio’s foot-tasting world.
This became especially ironic when Florio actually proposed that Flacco become the highest-paid QB three weeks after the Ravens won Super Bowl 47 by stating the Ravens should use Drew Brees’ contract as a basis and that the team should “act quickly” in signing Flacco to such a deal.
Phew.
Talk about a flip-flop!
I guess he expected everyone to forget what he said just 10 months prior. Baltimore never forgets, Michael.
RGIII was recently quoted saying something similar about how he thinks he’s the best QB. He wasn’t quite as humble as Flacco, but the intent was basically the same. You’d expect Florio to take a similar approach, wouldn’t you? He didn’t. He said this instead: “Football players need to be supremely confident in order to have a chance to be successful.”
Ok, Mike. Nice consistency. No soup for you.
Dan Hanzus is another know-it-all internet personality who writes for NFL.com. Here’s what he had to say about Flacco’s “best QB” statement:
“Everyone has a different way of motivating themselves. Joe Flacco‘s approach just happens to make it easy for people to crack jokes at his expense. These comments are ripe for satire, since Flacco comes off sounding like the QB version of Rex Ryan.
Unlike Florio’s turnaround, Hanzus had less-than-pleasant things to say about Flacco even after he led the Ravens to Super Bowl 47 and was rewarded with a deserving contract.
“It is certainly quite the deal for Flacco, a player who has yet to throw for 3,900 yards in a season. Flacco had a miracle playoff run, but a contract like this completely disregards five years of performance on the field.”
Ok, Daniel. We’re getting awfully specific, here. 3,900 yards? Since when is that a benchmark for quarterbacks? He was also ignorant enough to remember that Flacco had the most wins of any NFL quarterback since 2008, even prior to the playoff run.
Hanzus recently put Matt Ryan in his “Superstar Club of 2015.” I don’t know what the heck that is, but Hanzus must like quarterbacks who stink it up in the postseason and have multiple losing seasons. I guess throwing for more than 3,900 yards in a season really is the deciding factor.
Here’s a hypothetical: Suppose the Matt Ryan regresses a bit this year and only throws for 3,800 yards but the Falcons go 13-3 and win the Super Bowl. Would Hanzus and other media pundits cry foul because he didn’t have “superstar” numbers? Ha. Doubt it. It would be “Ermahgerd Matt Ryan is the best ever. So elite. He won a Super Bowl.”
That double standard is infuriating sometimes.
But that’s ok. Let them talk out of both sides of their mouths. Flacco has been proving people wrong for seven years now. Might as well continue that trend.
It’s fitting to end with this quote. If this doesn’t put a smile on your face, nothing will:
“No, not at all, because (the Ravens) have to go through one team — that’s the Pittsburgh Steelers. So in order for them to get to the Super Bowl, they have to beat us, and we’re not gonna let that happen. So that’s not gonna happen in this lifetime.” – former Steelers LB LaMarr Woodley, on Joe Flacco winning a Super Bowl Pittsburgh Steeler.
