Sport: Football
Born: January 16, 1985
Town: Audubon, New Jersey
Joseph Vincent Flacco was born in Voorhees, NJ on January 16, 1985 to Karen and Stephen Flacco. Stephen had played college football and baseball at the University of Pennsylvania. Like his dad, Joe was a big athletic kid with a strong arm who excelled at baseball. Growing up in the town of Audubon, Joe did not get his first taste of organized football until middle school. He and his brothers were more focused on the diamond than the gridiron.
Joe attended Audubon High School and was a part of a good Green Wave football team. He was a three-sport athlete at the school, playing football, baseball and basketball. As a quarterback, he had the fourth-most passing yards in South Jersey prep history with 5,137—and set a new record for the most yards in one game, with 471.
Joe accepted a scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh in 2003. He was red-shirted his first year and was a backup on the varsity his second year, when he only played in three games and had just one completion for 11 yards.
Unhappy at Pitt, Joe decided to transfer to the University of Delaware for the 2005 season. The University of Pittsburgh however, didn’t allow him the free transfer waiver, so he had to sit out the year. In 2006, Joe finally got to play for the Fightin’ Blue Hens and became a star. He set 20 different records and led Delaware to the 2007 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS—formerly known as Div. I AA) championship game in his second year. The Blue Hens lost that game to Appalachian State.
Come draft day in 2008, the Baltimore Ravens took Joe 18th overall. He was the first quarterback from a Division I FCS school ever to go in the first round. The pick had originally belonged to the Houston Texans, but they traded it for the #23 pick plus two picks in later rounds. Joe’s rookie season was very impressive. He threw for 2,971 yards and 14 touchdowns, and was voted Rookie of The Year. He led the Ravens to their first AFC Championship game since 2000. They lost to their bitter rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 23-14.
In the eyes of most football fans, Joe’s job as a young NFL quarterback was to simply “manage” the Baltimore offense. But he did much more than that. Joe displayed a powerful arm and led the Ravens deep into the playoffs year after year. In 2009, he passed for 3,613 yards and 21 touchdowns. In 2010, Joe threw for 3,622 yards and 25 touchdowns. 2011 was another good year for Joe. He passed for 3,610 yards and 20 touchdowns.
In 2011, Joe set an NFL record by starting and winning a playoff game in each of his first four seasons (he would extend that mark to five in 2012). The Ravens returned to the AFC Championship game in 2011 and nearly upended Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Toward the end of the game, Joe connected with Lee Evans in the end zone for what should have been the game-winning touchdown, but Sterling Moore swatted the ball away. Two plays later, Billy Cundiff missed the game-tying field goal, and with that Baltimore’s Super Bowl hopes disappeared.
In 2012, the Ravens took their final step under Joe and did make it to the Super Bowl. He set career highs in completions and passing yards along the way. He was at his best in a second-round playoff match-up with Peyton Manning and the Broncos. With less than two minutes left, Joe tossed a 70-yard game-tying TD pass to Jacoby Jones to force overtime—and the Ravens went on to win. They beat the Patriots in an AFC Championship rematch and then defeated the San Francsico 49ers, 34–31, to become NFL champs. Joe was named Super Bowl MVP.
The Ravens rewarded Joe by making him the higest-paid quarterback in league history with a six-year deal worth more than $120 million. That distinction didn’t last long, as the Packers and Falcons topped that number for their QB’s, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan. During the 2013 season, Joe established new personal bests with 362 completions and 3,912 passing yards. He connected for 19 touchdowns but also had his worst year in terms of interceptions, with 22. After starting the year with a sluggish 4–6 mark, the Ravens rallied to win four straight. However, they lost their final two games badly, to the Patriots and Bengals, and missed the playoffs.
Joe rebounded to have a good year in 2014, establishing career-high totals in touchdowns (27) and passing yards (3,986), while lowering his INTs to 12. However, with running back Ray Rice suspended, Joe was minus an important weapon. Although Baltimore managed 10 wins and a return to the playoffs, the Ravens fell in the second round to the Patriots.
The 2015 campaign was Joe’s most disappointing. The Ravens struggled to win and Joe injured his knee in a November game against the Rams, which caused him to miss the rest of the year. He finished with 2,791 yards and 14 touchdowns in 10 games. Things improved in 2016, as Joe and the Ravens got off to a quick start. However, Baltimore missed the playoffs for the second year in a row with an 8–8 record. A winless October and losses in three of their final four games sealed the Ravens’ fate. Joe, who signed a three-year extension before the season, established career highs with 436 completions and 4,317 yards, but those numbers were partly a resulted having to play catch-up in many games.
The Ravens improved by a win to 9–7 in 2017, but fell short of the playoffs once again with a loss to the Bengals on the final Sunday. Joe threw for more than 3,000 yards for the eighth time in his career, but the offense often sputtered. The following spring, the Ravens drafted Lamar Jackson and signed Robert Griffin as a backup. The message was clear—the team was getting ready to transition away from Joe.
And this they did, a bit sooner than expected. After suffering 9 sacks in a Week 7 loss to the Chiefs, Joe injured his neck the following week in a loss to the Colts. Jackson took over and reawakened the Baltimore offense, and Joe didn’t play another down in 2018.
The Ravens traded Joe after the season to the Broncos for a fourth-round draft pick. He started 8 games for Denver in 2019, but won just twice. Joe was on pace to top 3,000 yards again and had a stellar completion rate, but landed on injured reserved in November and didn’t come back. The Broncos released him after the season.
Joe signed with the Jets for 2020 as a backup to Sam Darnold. He saw more action than expected and passed Joe Montana for 20th on the all-time passing yards list, but was released at the end of the season. The Eagles signed Joe as a backup in 2021 but he was traded back to the Jets before playing a down. He appeared in two games for the Jets, but this time returned to play for Gang Green in 2022, replacing injured starter Zach Wilson early in the year.
In 2022, Joe served as the starter early in the year and engineered a thrilling 31–30 victory over the Browns that included two TD passes in the final two minutes. He served as a backup most of the year, starting just one more game, in the final week.
Joe was nowhere to be found when the 2023 season started. He was not offered a contract and only half expected to get a call from an NFL club. That November, however, Cleveland offered him a job following an injury to starter DeShaun Watson. After Watson backup suffered a concussion in Week 12, Joe started the rest of the games for the Browns. He notched three 300-yard games in a row and beat the Jaguars and Texans. In Week 17 against his old team, the Jets, Joe set a personal best with 296 passing yards in the first half on the way to a 37–20 win that clenched one of the unlikeliest playoff berths in recent memory. Along the way he became the first QB in league history with 250 yards and multiple TD passes in his first five games with a club—at age 38.
Joe’s fun run ended in Cleveland’s opening playoff game against the Texans. The Browns defense imploded in a 45–14 loss. After enjoying a spectacular first half, Joe threw a pair of pick-sixes to lose a Wild Card game for the first time in his career. After the season, Joe was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year. He was the oldest player in 60 years to earn the honor.