Mike Preston: It’s hard not to root for Joe Flacco, even with the rival Browns

Most NFL fans have a love-hate relationship with their favorite team’s starting quarterback, unless they win a Super Bowl. Then it takes on a new dynamic of becoming part of folklore and history.

Baltimoreans will never forget the iconic Johnny Unitas for glamorizing the position with his stats and titles, nor will they fail to remember Trent Dilfer, the ultimate game manager of the Ravens’ 2000 Super Bowl team.

And now there is Joe Flacco.

It appeared his 15-year career had come to an end as he lay on his couch and watched games from his home in New Jersey. But Cleveland called him for a workout nearly three weeks ago, and since then the Browns, with Flacco as the starter, have new life after Deshaun Watson’s season-ending shoulder injury last month. They are 1-1 under Flacco and 8-5 overall, and if they win two of their final four regular-season games, they will probably secure a playoff bid.

Now, Flacco is the talk of the NFL — and Baltimore — again.

You can’t go anywhere without hearing questions or comments about Flacco. The Ravens are the hottest team in the AFC but Flacco, even playing for an AFC North rival, still warms the heart and soul of Baltimoreans.

That happens when you complete 22 of 33 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns in a Super Bowl, as Flacco did in February 2013 in the Ravens’ 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers on his way to being named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

“No other quarterback had a playoff run like Joe,” said Stephen Holland, a longtime Baltimore football fan and former season-ticket holder. “He was a cult hero in Baltimore because we were Super Bowl champions again. He became the heart and soul of Baltimore and his image was second only to John [Unitas].”

But it’s more than titles and wins. Most people can identify with Flacco. He treated his job like someone working 9 to 5. Flacco didn’t talk a lot, but he always stood up after games regardless of how he played.

After he signed a six-year, $120.6 million contract that made him the richest quarterback in the NFL in March 2013, Flacco went through the drive-through of a McDonald’s in Aberdeen.

He was stoic both on and off the field. The no-thrills personality was part of his attraction, even though some wanted more energy from him. But on Sunday, when Flacco threw for 311 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-27 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Cleveland, Flacco was mobbed by his wife and five kids. Afterward, he said he felt “like a 10-year-old kid.”

That’s vintage Flacco.

“I think Joe Flacco is unassuming,” said Brandi Mebane, a die-hard Ravens fan and owner of Mebane Design Studio in Baltimore. “There’s no frill and nothing extraordinary about him on the surface, and that’s why most folks identify with him. He’s just like you and I. Someone you encounter day to day, living life in the most ordinary way, often overlooked and underestimated.”

Flacco’s addition to Cleveland was like a gift from the football gods to one of the NFL’s most mismanaged franchises. The Browns even made Flacco try out after having played with such awful backups-turned-starters Dorian Thompson-Robinson and P.J. Walker.

Arm strength, though, was never a concern with Flacco, the Ravens’ first-round draft pick out of Delaware in 2008. In Ravens history, only former quarterback Vinny Testaverde could throw the ball as far and as hard as Flacco.

In two games with the Browns, Flacco has completed 49 of 89 passes for 565 yards and five touchdowns with two interceptions. Against the Jaguars, he had three touchdown passes of more than 30 yards. Some of those included yards after the catch, but Flacco has put the vertical game back in the Browns offense.

He has done it without any big-name receivers, a familiar theme here in Baltimore because the Ravens didn’t give him any either. Cleveland has the often-injured Amari Cooper, and Flacco has a connection with Elijah Moore, whom he spent two years with when both were members of the New York Jets. Cleveland does have a top tight end in David Njoku and a good offensive line, but no top running back with Nick Chubb out of the season.

But again, that’s why the signing of Flacco was so important.

Maybe he can take Cleveland on a historic run like he did with the Ravens in 2012. He has the arm strength, poise and experience needed, and the Browns have one of the best defenses in the league.

During the Ravens’ last Super Bowl run, Flacco had one of the best postseasons ever. In four playoff games, he completed 73 of 126 passes for 1,140 yards and 11 touchdowns with zero interceptions, tying Joe Montana and Kurt Warner for the most touchdowns in a single postseason.

He beat Denver’s Peyton Manning and New England’s Tom Brady along the way. No one will ever forget the “Mile High Miracle,” the 70-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones in the final minute of a divisional round victory, a pass so long and so high it had dew on it when it landed in Jones’ hands. Flacco had a passer rating above 100 in those four playoff games.

Flacco was never a very mobile quarterback but moved better than most expected. He wasn’t going to deliver that rousing Ray Lewis-type pregame speech, but his demeanor earned him the nickname “Joe Cool” in Baltimore.

That personality will benefit him well in Cleveland, too. The Browns didn’t need a rock star quarterback; they needed someone calm at a position that had already been through three starters.

When you’ve watched Flacco play the past two weeks, there is some swag there. You can sense an appreciation for a quarterback who hadn’t played in 11 months and spent time throwing the ball around with his brother in the yard the past couple of weeks.

Flacco has a new perspective, and that happens when the game is taken away. No team called him after he spent the past few years in Denver, Philadelphia and New York.

Now, he is with the Browns, breathing life into a franchise that desperately needs it.

Everyone wishes him well, even in Baltimore. Unless, of course, he plays against the Ravens.