Raven’s Flacco Mega-Signing “Not a Big Deal”

Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

If you expected Joe Flacco — now the highest paid NFL player in history –  to step up to the podium and be flashy, you guessed wrong. The Baltimore Ravens quarterback took to the mic in a zip-up jersey and a t-shirt to talk about the six-year, $120.6 million mega-deal.

“It was pretty uneventful, to tell you the truth,” Flacco said after he signed the contract, per Yahoo. “It’s not really a big deal. Our goal is to win the Super Bowl. That’s always been one of my goals. It’s never necessarily been a goal of mine to get paid like this, it’s just what comes with the job.”

While many tab him as being uninteresting or dull (i.e. his father), Flacco may firmly know what he is worth. Last season, he opted to stick with his contract instead of signing a generous deal that would have entitled him about $15 million per season. But he declined it, mentioning that he thought he was worth more at the time. Now he is.

“It wasn’t necessarily about the money,” Flacco continued. “It was, at that point, about earning that respect and feeling like I was respected around here”

Flacco doesn’t put a lot of pressure on him. The easy-going gun-slinger has carried an even-temper since he could always remember. And it showed against the San Francisco 49ers in the 34-31 Super Bowl victory, where he threw for 287 yards and a staggering three touchdowns.

Flacco learned of the deal during a night out with his uncle at a local family pizza joint. He said he doesn’t have many plans for the money, yet.

“I’m not going to do anything crazy,” Flacco said. “All the celebration I can take is going out and enjoying a nice little time with the people that are close to me and looking at each other saying ‘Man, can you believe where we are?’ ”