Bisciotti authorized a final offer – a “bump and roll” contract that gave Flacco a $1 million per year bonus if he won a Super Bowl and $2 million per year for the six years of the deal if he had won two Super Bowls. It would’ve been a raise that stayed on the books for the life of the deal. The average salary number was $16.7 million per year on the Ravens’ base offer, which would’ve made Flacco the fourth-highest paid quarterback behind Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning. Flacco was essentially turning down $90 million because he was rejecting the notion that he was the fourth best quarterback in the NFL.
Linta and Flacco once again turned it down the week before training camp opened.
Bisciotti was flustered, wanting to get the deal done and ran into Flacco in the cafeteria in Owings Mills during the first week of training camp and summoned the quarterback to his office upstairs.
“I had never, ever – not for one minute – even spoken to Joe about the contract,” Bisciotti said. “That was for Pat [Moriarty] and Ozzie [Newsome] to do, but I wanted to take one more swing at it and try to understand the situation.”
They spent 45 minutes with the door closed.
“There are two things here that I don’t understand,” Bisciotti said to Flacco. “I don’t understand why you’re walking away from this deal? As maligned as you are in the press and as little faith as so many pundits have in you, we’re offering you a $90 million deal and you can go wave that in their face and say, ‘Fuck you guys! See, the Ravens DO believe in me!’ ”
Flacco was nonplused. “I really don’t care about my critics,” he bluntly told the Ravens owner.
8Bisciotti was exasperated. “I don’t understand it. Joe, don’t you think you’d play better with a clear head and having this contract behind you?” he continued. “You won’t have to answer questions from anybody, and you can just focus on playing and winning the Super Bowl.”
Flacco said it again. “Steve, I appreciate the offer, but I really don’t care about the media, critics, any of it. I’ve gotta trust my agent, and he doesn’t want any incentives in contracts. And I’ve gotta leave it to him.”
Bisciotti reasoned that until they won a Super Bowl together neither one would get that ultimate respect they desired. “I’m offering you a better deal than the one you’re asking me for if you’re planning on winning the Super Bowl,” he said.
Flacco wasn’t upset or emotional, as is his custom. He simply smiled and said he was going to play out the year. Bisciotti said, “Well, I tried,” as he shook Flacco’s hand. “Then go out and put a few rings on my desk and get what you think you deserve.”
“I figured if he’s fine with it then I should be fine with it,” Bisciotti said. “I wanted it behind both of us. I guess I didn’t really understand how different a guy he was. I told him, ‘You are a different cat, man!’ ”
Flacco remembers the conversation vividly. “Yeah, he couldn’t get over it,” Flacco said. “He said, ‘Do you know what you’re doing? This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!’ I told him I knew what I was doing and my price wasn’t getting cheaper. I saw his point of view but I also thought that I was right. I’m a little bit of a hard head.”
Flacco believed the market always get set by the next elite quarterback that signs and the price always goes up if you perform. “It wasn’t a bad offer but I felt like I could do better if I waited,” he said. Like his adversary in this $100 million negotiation, he had gone to the Bisciotti school of downside management.
8“My agent said to me, ‘Think about the worse possible situation and if you’re OK with that then hold your position,” Flacco said. The downside here would’ve been a catastrophic injury or a bad 2012 season on the field. “If I got hurt, I got hurt,” he said. “That’s the nature of the game. I was willing to look in the mirror and live with that.”
Flacco said he turned the tables on Bisciotti: “I told him, ‘You should give me four or five million more now because if I win the Super Bowl’ – and I did say ‘if’ – ‘then it’s gonna cost you $20 million.’ ”
Flacco figured he was still only making his base of $6.5 million in 2012 no matter what. The Ravens weren’t ripping up his deal. It was an extension. And there’s always a new “going rate” for top quarterbacks.
“I was actually glad that he called me up to talk about it because it was a cool conversation to have,” Flacco said. “Even though we weren’t agreeing it was a great conversation. It’s one of those talks that grows a relationship, I think.
“Hey, I tried to throw him a bone and save him some money.”
o o o
On the first day of training camp, a spry, happy Ray Lewis appeared at his first media briefing and had veteran perspective playing in his 17th NFL season: “Something I’ve learned about the game – I really appreciate it. I love playing the game; I love competition. That’s why I come back every year, every year, every year. The brotherhood in the locker room, that’s what makes the game beautiful. For me, being back here 17 years? Honestly, it feels like Year One again. You don’t cheat the game. Appreciate the journey.”
8Newsome, who is the ultimate arbiter of the value his players, still liked what he saw from Lewis on the field in August. “He’s moving around this year as well as he has the last three or four years,” he said. “His change of direction, his burst and quickness, they’re all there. I’ve watched the evolution of a young man over the years and seen how he continues to stay ahead of the curve.”
Even Harbaugh, who oft times doesn’t like to put things into perspective, felt buoyed by “the journey” Lewis so often talked about. After four consecutive playoff appearances and subsequent disappointments entering 2012, he believed the adversity of those four years of losses and the sting of that cold night in New England in January would serve the Ravens well.
“Somehow, last year, and now, this year, more so than ever, I feel in my element as the head coach,” Harbaugh said. “It looks the way I always wanted it to look. I remember I told the team in some of the tough moments back [in my first season of 2008], ‘I know what it’s going to look like, the picture is as clear as can be in my mind, and we’re not even close to being there yet. But we will be, no matter how long it takes, we will get there, I promise you that.’ And right now, it looks as close as it’s ever looked.”
