Joe Flacco vs Ed Reed and their game of friendly rivalry - NFL Feature
Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback (QB), Joe Flacco, had been making headlines for his outbursts on a number of issues throughout the 2011 National Football League (NFL) regular season and even after the end of the season.
The media has stirred the hype created by the QB’s remarks, repeatedly.
All those controversies settled down quickly without achieving much as the management opted to be silent most of the times.
Flacco, at a number of occasions, was head-on against his team management, complaining about them for sidelining him.
Given the fact that the team predominantly had a defensive strategy, the defensive players earned the appreciation of their wins more than their offensive players.
Hence, Joe felt at many occasions, that he had not been given due credit for Ravens' wins. He was very much open and clear in pressing his point but did not achieve much out of it.
The team managers were as serious about hearing and responding to his viewpoint as they were about a possible shift of their defensive approach.
Until their playoff game, against the Houston Texans, the Ravens kept relying on turnovers to score points in most games.
It was their final game, the American Football Conference (AFC) championship tie, against the New England Patriots, that they all of a sudden started speaking about the importance of their QB, Flacco.
Their safety, Ed Reed, was the first player to pull the trigger on Flacco. He, in one of his remarks, backed the QB to give a better performance to help his side secure a win.
Reed was not satisfied and went on a step further to criticise Flacco of being kind of ‘rattled’ by Houston Texans' defence, a game prior to the championship game.
In this way, the safety turned the tables on the QB, who until then himself had many reservations and complaints.
The media took on the opportunity and flashed Reed’s remarks in a sort of controversial context.
Irrespective of the fact that the media failed to achieve much out of the hype, again, the team’s management and especially their coach, John Harbaugh, became conscious to the significance of their offence's role in prospective wins.
It was too late by then for them to bring about a sweeping change in their strategy. With a number of defensive veterans on the side, the coach could not do much except for backing Flacco to give a better performance.
At the same length, the coach discarded Reed’s remarks, justifying that it was a hallmark of players like Reed to have come out with such an outburst.
He took no further chance to refute the possibility of a tension and controversy in the team.
He said all of their players were at peace and attentive about their role in the forthcoming game.
The coach’s remarks were followed by Flacco’s rejection of any tussle with Reed.
He played down Reed’s statement having been made in a certain context, and as Reed had clarified earlier, Joe said the safety’s talks should be understood in the intended perspective.
In the end, all sides managed to cool down in order to remain focused on their game against the Patriots.
It was all on Flacco’s shoulders to prove he was worthier than his opponent, Tom Brady, New England Patriots' quarterback.
Lucky for the player, his game clicked at the right time and he proved his critics wrong. Nonetheless, he failed to help his side in winning the game.
Again, it was the same old story for Ravens, having made a successful run in the regular season, their Super Bowl hopes remained a dream to come true, maybe some time in the future.
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