Mike Flacco has not had an elite athletic career, but he’s still plugging away at it, and he’s now trying to join his big brother Joe in Baltimore.
Flacco, a tight end, got a tryout over the weekend at the Ravens’ rookie minicamp. There he saw more photographs of his brother than in the family home.
“I’ve been walking around seeing a lot of pictures of Joe,” Mike said. “He’s been here for what, going on nine years now, and I’ve only been in this building a couple times. It’s cool to be here as a player, get a chance to come down here and try my best and see where it leads.”
A 2009 draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles, Mike Flacco’s baseball career petered out at the Double-A level. His college football career was brief, with just one season at Division II University of New Haven. He has been trying to make it in the NFL for three years now, with brief time in the Chargers’ training camp, the Jaguars’ practice squad and a Jets minicamp.
“[My career has] been all over the place,” he said. “Unfortunately I’ve never quite gotten to the point where I want to yet. You just push and if it happens it happens, and if not I’ll go back to school.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh says the two brothers are similar as athletes. That may not be a great thing for a tight end like Mike; Joe’s best athletic asset is his strong passing arm. Mike may lack the talent to play tight end in the NFL, and he looks like a long shot just to make the 90-man training camp roster in Baltimore, let alone the 53-man regular-season roster. But Mike is working hard at football, and also getting himself ready for a good career if football doesn’t work out: He’s also a chemical engineering student at Villanova.
