Signing a $120.6 million contract a month after winning the Super Bowl gives you the platform to explain away anything.
Joe Flacco clarified at his news conference on Monday that he was only joking when he told his Baltimore Ravens teammates to run from the sidelines and tackle Ted Ginn Jr. if the San Francisco 49ers' returner broke loose on the final play of Super Bowl XLVII.
"There was four seconds left in the game, and that was probably the only time all year that I was really, really nervous," Flacco said, via The Baltimore Sun. "I thought it was a pretty funny thing to kind of get my mind off of the fact that there is a possibility that he could run this thing back. I'm sure if I did do that, I'm sure that they could probably give the guy a touchdown."
Perhaps he was joking, but he sure fooled his teammates.
In the video of the incident, the responses from tight end Dennis Pitta and former center Matt Birk don't convey that they got the humor in Flacco's joke.
"I don't know," the Super Bowl MVP said. "But it's the Super Bowl, man. I'm doing anything I can to win that game. [Laughter]. Yeah, not really serious. They all looked at me like I was crazy. I told the linemen and they kind of backed up for a second like, 'What are you talking about?' [Laughter] But, hey, it was just all in good fun, kind of to distract my mind a little bit."
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra.
