FLACCO EYES RIDERS' SPOT
Football is a family affair
Tom and Joe Flacco are brothers in arms.
Tom is a training camp hopeful with the CFL'S Saskatchewan Roughriders. His older brother, Joe, is a fellow quarterback whose extensive NFL resume includes Super Bowl MVP laurels.
Joe was a first-round NFL draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens, whom he guided to a Super Bowl victory in 2013. Now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, the elder Flacco is in his 13th season.
“I'm the youngest of six children, so Joe's just the oldest,” Tom said during a Zoom call with reporters. “For me, that's all I know, because he's been my brother my whole life.”
Prior to joining the Riders, Tom spent two seasons with the Baltimore-based Towson University Tigers under head coach Rob Ambrose, who is quick to define the differences between the Flaccos.
“They could not be more diametrically opposed in their skill sets,” Ambrose said.
“Joe is huge. He has a cannon for an arm and he doesn't say a word. He could be a great poker player.
“Tom is not as tall as Joe, but he's incredibly athletic. He's really fast and really smart. He has no problem commenting about anything either.”
Joe is 6-foot-6 and 245 pounds, whereas Tom is of comparatively modest dimensions (6-1, 205).
“No one knows where Joe came from,” Tom said with a laugh.
“My dad is 5-foot-10. My mom is 5-foot-6, but there is no uncle over 6-foot-2. My second-oldest brother is also 6-foot-4. Other than those two, we've been telling the joke that it's the milkman or something like that.”
Stephen and Karen Flacco have six children — Joe, Mike, Stephanie, John, Brian and Tom — all of whom are athletic. Tom, 26, is the youngest of the five brothers. Joe, the oldest, is 10 years older than Tom.
Joe has led the way in terms of football for the Flacco family. He was a first-round selection (18th overall) in the 2008 draft by the Ravens. He was named the NFL'S rookie of the year in 2008. He later guided the Ravens to a 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.
He was Baltimore's starting quarterback from 2008 through 2018, leading the Ravens to the playoffs on six occasions.
Joe was traded to the Denver Broncos for a fourth-round pick in the 2019 draft. He subsequently signed as a free agent with the New York Jets (2020) and Philadelphia (2021).
In the NFL, he has completed 3,744 of 6,066 pass attempts for 40,931 yards with 222 touchdowns against 144 interceptions.
Tom, who wasn't selected in the 2020 NFL draft, doesn't have higher expectations for himself based on his brother's performance.
“There's no shadow,” Tom said, “and it's just not how we think.”
Ambrose wasn't surprised to hear about Tom's mindset when to comes to being Joe's younger brother.
“Tom really doesn't care about that stuff,” Ambrose said. “He cares about the game, his team and about winning. As far as the comparisons go, he loves his older brother and they are great friends. There isn't any talk about being in Joe's shadow. That's not even in a conversation in their home.”
Ambrose added that Tom and Joe are competitive despite the age difference.
“They would fight in their house over tiddlywinks,” Ambrose said. “It's just the level of competition that the Flacco family lives under. I know the family very well and they're competitive about everything. They're competitive about life and usually that equates to success.”
Tom was primarily a backup at Western Michigan and Rutgers before transferring as a graduate student to Towson, where he made his first NCAA start — completing 18 of 29 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns in the Tigers' 36-10 win over Morgan State.
In two seasons with the Tigers, Tom completed 484 of 795 passes for 6,082 yards with 50 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He also rushed 278 times for 1,066 yards and six touchdowns.
The native of Audubon, N.J., was also in the running for the Walter Payton Award in 2018 and 2019. The award is presented annually to the most outstanding offensive player in the NCAA'S Football Championship Subdivision.
“I wish I would have had him for his entire career, because he proved all the naysayers wrong,” Ambrose said.
“A bunch of people said he was an unathletic kid who couldn't throw the ball. That's a complete crock. He can throw the ball. He's incredibly dynamic and a great leader. He's fun to be around.”
The Philadelphia Phillies recognized Tom's athleticism by selecting him in the 32nd round (952nd overall) of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft as a high school senior.
“I probably could have played professional baseball, but I never really wanted to play college baseball,” said Tom, who was an outfielder. “I wanted to play college football. Once I didn't get picked high enough, I decided that I was going to play football.”
However, he did return to baseball in his senior year with the Tigers. He hit .221 with 20 runs scored, a home run and eight RBI in 44 games. He also stole 11 bases in 11 attempts.
Tom was aware of the Riders' interest in him after he was placed on their negotiation list as a junior in 2018. The Riders announced his signing Jan. 22.
“I've done my research on Saskatchewan so I know a little bit about everything,” he said with a chuckle. “Actually I don't know much of anything, but I know a little bit about a bunch of things.”
How Flacco fits into the Riders' plans remains to be determined, because Cody Fajardo is entrenched as the Riders' starting quarterback.
Head coach Craig Dickenson said that Isaac Harker, a second-year CFLER, has a slim lead over Flacco, Paxton Lynch and Mason Fine in the No. 2 quarterback derby. Harker is the only one of Fajardo's understudies with any CFL experience.
Dickenson would like to carry a third quarterback for developmental reasons. That would appear to be the role destined for Flacco, Lynch or Fine.
Ambrose feels the Riders couldn't go wrong if they found a roster spot for Flacco, who was a second-team academic all-american in football and baseball.
“He's incredibly intelligent, so I don't think there's a problem with picking up the CFL game,” Ambrose said. “The added player, the different timing of the motions and stuff like that, that's going to be something he'll have to grow into.
“He'll be ready to be a star in that league sooner than most people would think.”
He cares about the game, his team and about winning. As far as the comparisons go, he loves his older brother and they are great friends. There isn't any talk about being in Joe's shadow.