According to this from PFT, Joe Flacco basically advocated cheating to supposedly ensure their Super Bowl victory. He was telling his teammates on the sidelines they should just tackle the ball carrier on the free kick that ended the game. He figured the refs couldn’t just award a touchdown, so it was better than letting the 49’ers score.
He’s actually wrong about that last point. The refs can award a score under the circumstances Flacco was advocating, so his efforts would have been doubly defeating: he would have been revealed as a world class sore loser and he still would have lost the game.
I know it’s a quaint notion in today’s NFL and will barely register on the outrage meter. Flacco is, after all, the SB MVP and will get a huge pay day after his accomplishments. Be that as it may, this kind of thing should cost Flacco in some respect. He shouldn’t be advocating cheating in the event of the miraculous happening. It’s cheap and illegitimate. I think his nose should be rubbed raw in it. Personally, I’ll be routing against him until the day he retires. (I know, huge penalty there…)
But it’s not all bad in the article. There’s a nugget at the end revealing the humorous side of the NFL. Here’s the line from the linked post:
Though the response isn’t audible, a teammate apparently said something along the lines of, “Lead the way, Bert.” (That’s my half-joking guess at what was said, not a quote.)
Look at a picture of Flacco and then a picture of Bert from Bert & Ernie fame. Really, can there be any doubt his teammates call him “Bert”? Hilarious.