By Matt Vensel, The Baltimore Sun – The NFL has released some intimate audio and video from the sidelines of Super Bowl XLVII, and one of the most interesting exchanges was filmed on the Ravens sideline before the final play of Baltimore’s 34-31 win.
As Sam Koch prepared to boot a free kick to San Francisco 49ers return Ted Ginn Jr., quarterback Joe Flacco told his teammates to run onto the field and tackle Ginn if it looked like he was going to score. This, of course, is illegal and could have resulted in an automatic touchdown, but Flacco wasn’t sure about the rule.
Here is the transcription of the audio courtesy of Yahoo Sports’s excellent NFL blog Shutdown Corner (and here is a video of it):
“If he starts to break it, go tackle him,” Flacco said to Dennis Pitta.
“Really?” the tight end responded.
“I don’t know … I mean … what else can they … they might be able to give them a touchdown on that? I don’t know,” Flacco told Pitta.
Flacco then approached the offensive linemen with his new tactic.
“Hey! If he breaks this … if he busts it for some reason? Tackle him! Go tackle him,” Flacco said to guard Marshal Yanda and center Matt Birk. “I don’t know what the rule is on that, but…”
“Why don’t you?” Yanda asked.
“I’m going to!” Flacco said.
Flacco wanted to win a Lombardi Trophy so badly, he actually might have been serious. Thankfully for the Ravens and their fans, linebacker Josh Bynes tackled Ginn before Flacco did it himself.