Joe Flacco driven by family as Browns chase AFC playoff bid

BEREA, Ohio — Twice a week, Joe Flacco would meet his brother and father at a Pee Wee grass field with an unlocked gate, just a few miles from their home in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Their ritual began with the throwing of a heavy baseball, 10 ounces heavier than a normal ball. Then, moving on to the football, Joe and his brother Tom would place their father, Steve, around the field to simulate receiving routes. While catching passes, Steve, who wore gloves to keep his hands from stinging, recapped the NFL weekend, which always seemed to feature a major quarterback injury.

“You look back on this last Sunday, the guys that came down, and we're like, 'Did anyone contact you? They must have called you, right?' Tom remembers. “And Joe says, 'No, no one called me.' And it's like, 'What the fuck?'”

As the weeks went by, Joe was still waiting for that call to play in the NFL again. But Joe, his father and his brother continued to come together to pitch and help keep Joe's big right arm ready. Sometimes they would go until their arms were tired. Other days, they had to call early to track down Tom's grandson, Joseph, who was heading to a nearby field on his toy bicycle.

Finally, in mid-November, Joe received that call. The needy Cleveland Browns quarterback wanted to send him to practice following a season-ending shoulder injury to starter Deshaun Watson. So Joe, Tom and Steve met up to have a blast one last time before Joe boarded a flight from Philadelphia to Cleveland that night.

“You could tell he was excited to have this opportunity,” Tom said. “That was cool to see. Okay, that's nice.”

A little over a month later, Joe has propelled the Browns to the brink of their first playoff appearance since 2020. On Thursday night, Cleveland (10-5) can clinch a playoff spot in its home finale of regular season against the New York Jets. (8:15 p.m. ET, Fox).

“We’re just happy as you can imagine,” Steve said. “We want to see these Cleveland fans win, baby. And we're so grateful to the organization for bringing him in.”

Since taking over as quarterback for the Browns in Week 13, Joe leads the NFL with 1,307 passing yards. Before that, while alternating between Watson, PJ Walker and rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson at quarterback, Cleveland ranked 28th in the process.

As a result, the Browns have won three in a row. Joe, meanwhile, who turns 39 next month, became the third-oldest quarterback behind Tom Brady and Warren Moon to pass for more than 300 yards in three consecutive games, all of which came during a streak of victories.

Now, with a tenacious defense and a new passing attack behind Flacco, Cleveland is starting to look like a real threat heading into the AFC playoffs.

“When Joe came in, it was like a weight was lifted off our shoulders,” said star Amari Cooper, who broke a Browns record with 265 receiving yards in Sunday's 36-22 win over the Houston Texans. “He’s a guy we trust.”

As Cooper points out, Flacco's success shouldn't be all that surprising. He is one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in the league. He was a former first-round draft pick who won the Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens in 2012, earning game MVP honors in the process.

But Flacco also hadn't started a full season in six years. After a stint with the Jets last season that included four starts, he went unsigned this offseason. He was not signed during the preseason. He also remained without a contract for more than half of the regular season.

“As I sat at home for most of this year,” Flacco said, “I was probably starting to lose a little faith.”

So how did Flacco end up in Cleveland throwing passes as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL? It goes back, at least in part, to when he played with his father and brother on that little league field.

“I can’t divulge our secret workouts,” Steve said jokingly. “Really, it was just three idiots on a field doing stupid things.”

STEVE AND HIS his wife Karen raised six children: Joe, the eldest, followed by Mike, Stephanie, John, Brian and Tom, the youngest by a decade. Until Joe moved to Cleveland last month, the siblings had all settled with their families around Haddonfield, less than five miles from their parents, except for John, a resident doctor in Jersey City.

“We were all really close growing up,” Joe said. “I think it’s just inherent in us to want to stay like that.”

Following in the footsteps of his older brother who was a Football Championship Subdivision All-American for the University of Delaware, Tom also played quarterback, throwing 50 touchdowns in two seasons for Towson University.

“Even though we're 10 years apart, it doesn't seem like it because we're so close,” said Tom, who was in high school when Joe won the Super Bowl with Baltimore. “But I had never really played with him on a field that much.”

That all changed this fall when Tom, like Joe, sought to keep his own football dreams alive after a stint in the Canadian Football League. So in September, he and Joe started working out together to keep their arms in shape. Instead of soliciting receivers, they simply had their father come over and collect their passes.

“I can still catch the ball standing up. Running [routes] That's another story,” Steve said. “They busted my balls because I started wearing gloves. But man, my hands are chewed up. »

Last year, while serving an 11-game suspension for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy, Watson worked out regularly with his personal quarterbacks coach and threw throws to a center's receivers sports training center in neighboring Ohio. Flacco has kept his body in shape. But the only death he had this fall was that of Tom and Steve.

“Joe obviously threw a ton of footballs, so we were just trying to keep him relaxed and feel good in his arm,” said Steve, who noted that they threw him late in the morning after Joe finished his workouts at the gym. “That's really all it was. That's really why we were there.”

The three spent a lot of time on the field playing baseball. First with the heavy ball, then a long throw with a regular baseball, until Steve forced them to stop.

“That’s how we warmed up,” Tom said.

After that, Joe and Tom practiced their footwork, including their three-step and five-step jumps, moving their father around the court.

“We would just run routes with my dad, setting him up,” Tom said, “and sometimes he would run them, so we would hit a moving target.”

Meanwhile, the three continued to chat.

The brothers would have “stupid arguments, that's the name of the game with us,” Joe said, including over whether it's better or worse to have a high heart rate.

Steve, meanwhile, was talking about what he saw at all the NFL games the previous weekend, “and me and my brother aren't listening to him at all,” Joe said with a laugh, ” because we could [not] careless.”

Joe, Tom and Steve spent a lot of time together away from Pee Wee Field this fall. The Flacco families would get together on Fridays for pizza night and on Sundays to watch NFL games. But their throwing sessions became special, especially for Tom.

“Being in this situation where I’m pitching with him,” he said, “it’s not lost on me.”

ON NOV. 16, Tom met his brother and father in the field, not realizing that it would be the last time they would be together. Watson, who the Browns gave a record $230 million, fully guaranteed contract last year, required season-ending surgery on his right shoulder. The Browns had called Joe to work out for them. Joe hadn't worked for a team since entering the NFL draft 15 years ago. Tom and Steve gave Joe one last rehearsal, reviewing the Browns' route tree, before boarding a flight to Cleveland.

“We were excited,” Steve said. “We're like, 'They're going to make you work?' When they see you on the field, I'll feel pretty good.”

According to multiple team sources who saw the audition in Cleveland, Joe crashed practice. Since then, he has been crushing opposing defenses, becoming one of the best returners of this NFL season.

“It’s just cool to see how excited they are,” Joe said, “and it makes me feel the same way.”

Thursday evening, Steve, Tom and Joe will be together again for the first time since that last passing session. The Flaccos are bringing a large contingent of family and friends from New Jersey to see Joe play for the Browns in person for the first time.

“The opportunity to see him in this stadium playing a home game, we’re not going to miss it,” Steve said. “Man, this is the best thing ever.”

Tom, meanwhile, also received the call he was waiting for. He recently signed to play for the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL.

He continued to play on the same field with his father and now with Vinny Papale, who is trying to make it in the USFL. Papale is the son of Vince Papale, who at age 30 was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles team, a story told in the 2006 film “Invincible,” starring Mark Wahlberg.

Now, after every Browns game, Joe and Tom talk over the phone about what happened.

“Joe plays for Cleveland now and the way they play, it’s been exciting for my whole family, but it’s really cool for me,” Tom said. “I'm not just a 16-year-old kid who thinks this is exactly what's happening to your brother. I can appreciate it a lot more now.”