A lot of us probably had posters of our favorite athletes on our walls growing up.
But once you reach the NFL, you'd think you wouldn't still be sleeping with a Tom Brady poster on the wall, right? Well, count this story as another reason why Joe Flacco isn't your average NFL quarterback.
During Flacco's first two offseasons in the summer of 2009 and 2010, he moved back home into his parents' home in Audubon, NJ. He shared a room with one of his younger brothers.
"It's got magazine cutouts, posters of a lot of people," Flacco said. "Tom was one of them.
"He might have made those [posters], I think that was probably back in like 2000. I was probably a freshman or sophomore [in high school]. He was in junior high when he probably started doing all that. That room still looks identical to the way it did 16 years ago."
Flacco didn't think this was a big deal, and obviously it's not.
But wouldn't you think that when your son comes back home after playing in the NFL, maybe you clear off the walls idolizing other quarterbacks and put up a Flacco jersey or poster or something? Does that not strike anybody else as odd?
Anyway, Flacco bunked up with the family for about two months each offseason before returning to the Baltimore area for offseason workouts. He said he mostly just worked out and hung out with his then girlfriend turned wife, Dana.
"You can call it living with my parents. I guess it's kind of what it was," Flacco said. "What was I going to do? Buy a place back there? Not for a month."
By the way, Flacco has played eight games against Brady and the New England Patriots over his career (regular season and postseason). He has a career 91.3 quarterback rating with 16 touchdowns to eight interceptions against them. He's thrown for 2,063 yards.
By comparison, Brady has a 77.4 quarterback rating during those same eight games. He's thrown 10 touchdowns to 10 interceptions and lost two fumbles. He's thrown for 2,137 yards.
The Ravens' record in those eight games is 3-5. The two quarterbacks have split four postseason matchups.
