Yesterday news broke that there was a chance that the Ravens and Joe Flacco could come to terms on a long term contract by the time training camp rolls around; a “75% chance” to be exact.  I’m sure most fans were excited to hear this, as was I.  But when a report comes out like this, it’s important not to trust it blindly.

You see, teams will sometimes leak this information in order to sort of “put the ball in the players court”, so that if a deal doesn’t get done the player (Joe Flacco in this case) might look bad.  Well, Flacco’s agent, Joe Linta joined Drew Forrester this morning to address the chances that Joe Flacco signs before training camp.  He said rather sarcastically (in regards to the ‘75% chance’), ““That was news to me. That’s good. That’s a good number”.  Quite simply put, there is no timetable on when it will get done.

Ravens fans shouldn’t really expect a deal to get done in the near future.  In negotiations like this (where there is no timetable, unlike Ray Rice) the two parties will usually talk things over for a while.  “You want to understand what their sides hot button, important issues are. They have to understand ours. We shake hands. We hug and we go at it. It’s not personal. It’s not the vitriol filled room that a lot of people might think,” Linta said.

Linta said Flacco really isn’t even worried about when it gets done which is very good news for the Ravens and fans.  He said, “Money is secondary to him to the winning and the success he enjoys with the team.”  This should make Ravens fans happy because the last thing we need is another player who’s mind is not on football when it should be (ahem…Ed Reed).  Flacco is focused on winning games like he has done throughout his career.  “His primary focus is to go out and play the game and win for the town and himself…He has a real affinity for this town,” said Linta.

Quite frankly, Ravens fans are lucky to have a player who generally cares about the city, wants to win for everyone and who is a top flight quarterback.  Flacco takes so much undeserved criticism from people, including a large majority home town fans.  It always amazes me how fans around here can criticize the best QB we have ever had here by a long shot.  When did people become so spoiled?

Linta believes that it is due in large part to some of the mainstream media.  He says, “There are people in the media who don’t watch the film so all they have to go on is statistics. There are a lot of guys that are on television that don’t know the difference between touchdown and goose down yet they are analyzing Joe Flacco’s performance. You have to laugh at that but they become influential to the public at large.”

And that’s just it.  Flacco’s numbers obviously aren’t the best but if you actually watch him play.  If you actually see what he does with the below average supporting cast (minus Ray Rice) around him, it’s hard to argue that he is not one of the best QB’s in the league.

Flacco also has a great deal of confidence in himself.  Lack of confidence is often a downfall of some quarterbacks.  Ravens fans, however, do not have to worry about this with Joe.  Not to mention Joe’s calm attitude.  “Nothing upsets him to the point where it deters his performance. That’s an amazing quality and one you really look for in a quarterback,” Linta said.

Joe is the perfect QB for this town.  He cares about winning, he wants to stay here, he is focused on football rather than money and he is blue collar type of guy.  What more could we ask for?  Joe will lead us to the Promised Land, but he can’t do it alone.  He needs your support.  So stop criticizing his every move and just let him do his thing.

Yesterday, just minutes before the 4 P.M. deadline, Ray Rice signed a 5 year, $40 million contract and Ravens fans were able to back away from the cliff a bit.  Rice and his agent Todd France had been working with the Ravens all offseason (even while driving to the facility yesterday to sign the deal) in order to get this deal done and thank god they did.

Rice shed tears of joy as he signed the deal that would secure him for the rest of his life.  It’s good to see Rice, who appears to be a pretty good guy, so happy and get such a good contract.  He went about this whole negotiation process and offseason as a complete adult and professional.  This doesn’t seem like it would be hard but in the NFL, this is hardly the norm.

I can’t tell you how much I wanted Drew Brees and Matt Forte to just shut their mouths and let their agents, who they hired to talk for them, actually do their jobs.  Matt Forte wouldn’t shut up about the amount of loyalty he showed to the Bears and the lack of loyalty they had been showing him.  And Drew Brees wouldn’t shut up about pretty much everything. 

I mean, look at our own team in Ed Reed.  Reed has lost the good graces of a lot of fans because he simply will not stop running his mouth.  I don’t blame him for wanting more money and a new contract in the slightest bit.  I would want the same thing in his position.  But Ed, play out your current contract and then worry about it. 

What players like Reed, Brees, and Forte need to realize though is, running to the media or talking about it on Twitter is not the way to go about it.  Let the talks happen behind closed doors.  I wouldn’t want everyone to know about me asking for a raise at my job. 

Look, I don’t even blame a guy for sitting out of training camp or games but there comes a point where it becomes too public.  You just shouldn’t criticize your boss in public when you aren’t getting what you want regardless of the profession you are in.

Ray Rice handled his contract exactly how a player should.  He let his agent be the “bad guy” for him.  Ray genuinely wanted to be back for training camp.  He genuinely wanted to get a contract that would be fair for both him and the team (which is probably why he got more than Matt Forte).  Rice never said a word about being mad at the team, never called anyone out, and most importantly, played out his original contract (see, Ed Reed).

It was reported that Rice and his agent were looking for money comparable to that of Adrian Peterson’s contract.  Obviously, they didn’t get that so it’s easy to say they caved in at the last second.  The reality is that they and everyone else knew they weren’t going to get that kind of money.  They were merely negotiating.  Todd France, Rice’s agent, said in an interview with Glenn Clark, “At the end of the day though it’s not about winning and losing. You seriously have to take it out of the equation. You can get very caught up on paperwork and very caught up on numbers.  The kid just set up himself and his family for generation after generation.”

And that’s exactly it.  It was never about getting the most possible money for Ray.  He just wanted what was fair and to play football.  He didn’t want this process to drag out.  “That wasn’t his MO. You got some guys in the league that handle things differently. Ray, he is all about football,” said France.

Ray genuinely cares about the fans here in Baltimore, as exhibited by his constant charity work.  He cares what people think about him. France said, “As he told me, I’ve never played this game for money, Todd. I don’t want it to be all about the money.  I don’t want people to think I’m greedy.”  Don’t worry Ray, we don’t.  We are happy to have you in Baltimore for another five years.