The Pittsburgh Steelers are out of Latrobe and back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, also referred to as the South Side Facility. We are already into the regular season, where everything is magnified and, you know, actually counts. The team is working through the highs and lows and dramas that go through a typical Steelers season.
How are the rookies performing? What about the players that the team signed in free agency? Who is missing time with injuries, and when are they going to be back? What are the coaches saying about what they are going to do this season that might be different from how it was a year ago?
These are the sorts of questions among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked, though there is rarely a concrete answer, as I’ve learned in my years of doing this.
Question: What is your favorite memory of Joe Flacco, whether it was against the Steelers or not?
For as much grief as he takes, it must be said that Joe Flacco did win a Super Bowl for the Baltimore Ravens, a fact that can never be taken away from him. He might not have played particularly great outside of that one postseason run, but most players would trade a great regular season career for one great postseason that ends in a championship.
But the Ravens are moving on with Lamar Jackson, and in fact have already agreed in principle to trade Flacco to the Denver Broncos for a fourth-round draft pick. The trade can’t be made official until the start of the new league year, but as we anticipate his exit from the AFC North, I thought it would be appropriate to take a moment to appreciate his career—in one way or another.
My fondest memory, and I’m sure this will top many people’s lists, would have to be the AFC Championship game of his rookie season in 2008. He threw a late-game interception to Troy Polamalu that he returned for a touchdown in what was probably the most uproarious moment in Heinz Field history.
A more recent favorite came in 2017. T.J Watt finished off a big win over the Ravens with a strip sack of Flacco, the ball spilling out of bounds, which triggered a 10-second run-off that ended the game with a Steelers victory.
What are some of your favorite Flacco moments, even if they occurred against another team? If you’re really generous, you can even talk about a positive moment for him—such as his would-be game-winning drive in 2016 that was stymied by the Immaculate Extension.
