Recent in-game audio from Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco includes the Super Bowl MVP urging teammates to take out 49ers return specialist Ted Ginn Jr. during the last play of Baltimore’s championship win.
Predictably, the question of whether Flacco was joking or serious depends on the ear of the listener. Ravens fans insist he was kidding. Pretty much everyone else who listens to it objectively believes Flacco meant business.
Ravens receiver Anquan Boldin appeared on Friday’s edition of Pro Football Talk, and Boldin admitted that it was no joke.
“He said it to me,” Boldin told Erik Kuselias. “I started laughing like, ‘Don’t worry, they’ll tackle him.’ He’s like, ‘I’m serious. If this guy breaks it I’m running out there to tackle him.’ I was like, ‘OK, feel free.’”
Flacco didn’t, because he didn’t have to. But it would have been one of the all-time great moments in NFL history, and a fitting end to what ended up being, all things considered, the craziest Super Bowl of them all.