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Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff Writer
Joe Flacco‘s days are filled with working out as well as picking up his children from school and taking them to sports activities.
But there have been no thoughts about retirement for this free agent quarterback. Flacco, 38, is still hoping he will get signed by an NFL team at some point this season.
“Listen, I can still play,” Flacco told ESPN on Thursday. “That’s me talking, obviously. I’m hoping that there’s the silver lining that I’m not anywhere right now and that I can be available to anybody. I’m not saying it’s going to be the truth, but if I was tied up with somebody as a backup and just didn’t play at all when all of a sudden three guys go down, well, I’d probably be in the back of my head be thinking, ‘Oh, man, would I have had an opportunity to go there?’
“So I do think that at the point that my career is in, it is a positive thing in a lot of ways that I’m not anywhere right now, because if somebody does need somebody, at least I’m available.”
Flacco, who guided the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl win 10 years ago, ranks in the top 20 all time in victories (99) and career passing yards (42,320). Last season, he played five games for the New York Jets, throwing for 1,051 yards, with five touchdowns and three interceptions.
Flacco’s agent reached out to some teams in the spring, and according to Flacco, “there didn’t really seem to be too much that was biting.” But Flacco anticipated having a better chance to catch on with a team when the regular season began.
“When people are really pressed to win some games, if they have to call on somebody, then they’d be more willing to get somebody like me who can hopefully come in and learn an offense pretty quickly and at least give you a fighting chance,” he said.
Flacco is one of the most experienced available options at quarterback. He has excelled in the postseason, in which he went 10-5 with Baltimore and threw 25 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions.
On Thursday, Flacco was picking up his youngest child from kindergarten when he was trying to think of the last time he wasn’t on a football team at the start of September.
“It’s been since the time I was 12 years old, so 26 years. Wow,” Flacco said. “It’s uncharted territory for me.”
Flacco spends his mornings working out with the hope he can play his 16th NFL season.
“I still believe that I have all of the athletic and physical tools to do it,” Flacco said. “In terms of the quarterback and the mental part of it, I’ve only gotten better over the last 15 years. So I feel just as physical as I ever have. I mean, not to say that I’m not 27, 28 years old anymore. But I’m in great shape and I don’t see a real drop-off.”
Source: www.espn.com