Joe Flacco

I want to play in the NFL until I'm 45

I wanna play as long as I possibly can... at 45 [my kids] would be in high school. I, I'd love to say I'd still be playing at that point. But, you know, the situation might have to be exactly right.

Wearing all-black uniforms at night in Baltimore provides an extra confidence boost

There was something about it, man, when you showed up, when you had the black jersey in your locker and it was a big game. You're like, it gave you that little extra like, nudge of confidence... we're definitely winning.

I'm going to play football as long as possible to avoid having to do sports media

Honestly, man, that's the last thing I want to do is be doing interviews to get myself behind a camera. So I'm gonna try to do this as long as possible and, and diminish those possibilities as much as I can.

I knew I could really throw a football for the first time when I was 8 years old

I was eight years old, I think I was in first grade, but I threw a couple passes to [my dad] and I just remember the look on his face kind of like, all right, that was pretty good bud. ... I just remember seeing a little bit of a look on his face and his reaction and being like, ah, maybe I can throw.

My second son will have to play quarterback because he is too natural of a thrower

My second son for sure is going to have to play quarterback. I think he, he's just too natural a thrower. So I'm, oh man, that's great. Another line of Flacco would be awesome.

The 'elite' label came from winning games without gaudy stats — people wear the sweatshirt both sincerely and as a joke, and either way it's fun

I was winning a bunch of games in Baltimore, but my stats were never gonna fly off the stat sheet. We were winning games because we had a formula with how we won games. ... The funny thing is, is now people could like, listen, I have buddies wearing the sweatshirt because they're like, yeah, damn right he's elite. And I have detractors that are out there probably using it as a joke. ... Either way it's a story and I have a lot of fun with it.

The Wildcat is stupid; if you're going to run it, just take the quarterback off the field

If you're gonna do it, just take me off the field. You know, like, like let's, let's get an actual football player here so that we can actually accomplish something For real... that's why when I, when I go out there, I, I, I stay like five yards off the ball so there's no chance of me looking like an idiot.