SAN FRANCISCO _ Frank Flacco, the baby whose birth delayed his father's first Pro Bowl appearance, is 11 years old and in heaven at Monday's AFC practice.
His favorite player here this week, Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, is catching passes from Dad again. Another Frank favorite and another Bengals wide receiver, Tee Higgins, walked into the building with Dad this morning. His favorite running back, Christian McCaffrey, is here this week, too, and is playing for the NFC.
"Who are you?" kidded Frank and one of his four brothers after Dad took a who's-who quarterback photo with AFC coaches Steve Young, Michael Vick, and their other quarterback, Shedeur Sanders.
Frank Flacco's dad, who was the toast of Cincinnati last year before he was the San Francisco treat this week, says it's worth the wait. The NFL's all-star game is no longer played in Hawaii, and is now a game of Tuesday night touch (8-ESPN, NFL+) in the basement of the Moscone Center as an early-week appetizer at the site of the Super Bowl.
But, at 41, the oldest Bengal ever admits he needed a little age to see the Pro Bowl light.
"It's cool to be able take my kids out there. Earlier in my career, I'd probably had a hard head and said, 'Nah, give it to somebody else,'" Joe Flacco says before Monday's practice.
"There were a couple of times I was an alternate, and I turned it down. I always wanted to be one of those first three guys the first time I went. I had a couple of chances and, nah, I don't want to go. But now it's cool. I'm glad here."
Flacco has done everything in the game but this. "You probably think about it a little bit, but you just assume it will eventually come. Well, here you go."
Back in the day, the Pro Bowl was the personal province of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, which didn't escape the gaze of Flacco.
"I think earlier in my career, I cared about that. I wanted to be one of the original three, and Peyton and Tom were taking up two spots no matter what," Flacco says. "Then there was kind of a rotation for that third, but not that much. And other guys take this all the time. They don't care why they get it, so why should I?"
Joe Burrow, the quarterback he replaced for six giddy games last season after that historic trade between Paul Brown's Browns and Bengals, also got the phone call last week. Flacco was on the plane out here Sunday when Burrow texted to tell him he was coming to play in his third Pro Bowl to end his sixth and maybe most remarkable season.
"I keep telling people I'm playing with two of my teammates," Flacco says.
Burrow and Sanders, the Browns' rookie Flacco beat out for the right to lose to Burrow and the Bengals on Opening Day.
Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Justin Herbert are all hurting. Drake Maye is down the road getting ready for Sunday's Super Bowl. As great as those AFC quarterbacks are, it's a thin group. Burrow, with just eight starts in an injury-interrupted season, is the call to greatness.
All of this is fine with not only Flacco. Burrow isn't here yet, but the praise for Flacco is, and tells him he made the right call.
"Look at him," says Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton. "He's a legend. You can probably ask most pass catchers here. He's probably thrown a touchdown to them. Ja'Marr, Tee, myself."
"I caught my first two touchdown passes from him," says Patrick Ricard, the great Ravens fullback named to his sixth Pro Bowl and one of the few New England natives (Spencer, Mass., and University of Maine) not here for the Super Bowl.
Ricard almost remembers exactly. That happens when you have seven career touchdowns, two fewer than Flacco threw to Higgins.
"Flow Six. Traditional fullback in the flat. It was against the Lions. I think it was November," Ricard says of the Dec. 3, 2017 game. "Then the following week was a prime-time night game in Pittsburgh. An unbalanced quick version of that play in the red zone. Those are my two from Joe."
There is another prime-timer against the Steelers Ricard remembers. This one was at Paycor Stadium back in October, the 33-31 win Flacco pulled off with 342 yards on his eighth full day as a Bengal
"Yeah, but he's played the Steelers 100 times," Ricard says. "I was pulling for him because the Steelers were leading the division. I'm thinking, why doesn't he throw it to Ja'Marr every time?"
He pretty much did with 23 targets. Ricard remembers a lot more than that. It is recent history for the Bengals locker room.
"So relatable. So down to earth," Ricard says. "Just loves football. There's no drama, no B.S., no agenda, no ego. Just playing ball. Just enjoying his time with the boys."
That's why Sutton gave Flacco an extra-long hug when they saw each other on the field.
"I've got much love for him," Sutton says. "I tell people all the time. If there's one person people can't talk bad about in front of me is Joe Flacco. I have so much love for him."
Even the rare guy who has never played with him during 18 seasons on six teams of separation was waiting to see him. But they all saw him win Super Bowl MVP for the Ravens 13 years and four kids ago.
"One of those guys I grew up watching. He's a legend of the game, and for him to check another box is pretty cool," says Detroit quarterback Jared Goff before the NFC left the field Monday. "Where do I start? He throws it as well as anybody in the history of the NFL. As a fellow pocket passer, he does a lot of things I try to do myself. I love watching him."
"Flacco The O.G.," is what Chargers safety Derwin James Jr., calls him. "Call him up, and he'll come in and help your team."
Flacco saw his own O.Gs on Monday. Vick, who was a combo of Mahomes, Allen, and Burrow back when Flacco was a kid, taps Flacco on the shoulder as he ducks into the locker room.
"Hey Mike, when did you get in?" Flacco asks.
"I made it last night, but my baggage didn't," Vick says.
And then there's Steve Young, the Pro Football Hall -of-Famer who threw six touchdown passes in a Super Bowl when Joe Flacco was Frank Flacco's age.
"No matter how old you are, it's always cool to see the guys you grew up watching play the game," Flacco says. "The greats. Being able to have normal conversations, but not really normal. I'm still that little kid sitting on the couch watching these guys play."
On Monday, Flacco the kid had to get chills when Young, desperate for a win over buddy and teammate Jerry Rice's NFC, looked over Flacco and commanded, "Let 'er rip."
Don't kid yourself. Flacco has very grown-up competitiveness. He'd love to come back as Burrow's backup, a spot where he's had plenty of fun with the guys. But if there's a team looking for a "bridge quarterback," he wants to be that guy and no one else.
Still, it really is a kid's game, and there were also a lot of kids out there Monday running around on the green carpet of a convention center. And you could count Joe Flacco and his five kids.
"At this point in my career, it's nice to say I've done it," Flacco says. "You bring the family along, that's a little bigger draw. My second-oldest son (Daniel) loves Jahmyr Gibbs. We saw him last night at the dinner and got a little picture with him. They remember this."
At the Sunday night Pro Bowl dinner, Ricard told Flacco congratulations and how much of an inspiration he is.
"I'm nearing the end of my career, and you're still going Ricard says. "I remember his kids in the hot tub at the facility and how they're probably all in college."
Not quite. Frank Flacco's mom, the very patient and organized Dana Flacco, makes sure the kids have water as they converge on the field after practice.
"When they outnumber you, it's all downhill from there," she says with a cheery laugh. "It's pretty cool. We haven't been. It looked like it was off the table, and here we are."
She remembers that 2015 Pro Bowl. There was no alternate when her husband chose to stay with her and Frank and, the last irony, sending the Bengals' Andy Dalton to Hawaii.
"I didn't want me expecting Frank to be the reason he didn't go," Dana says. "That choice was all on him. He did miss Daniel's birth when the Ravens played the Browns."
On Monday, it seemed like everyone was a kid at this Pro Bowl.
"It's on the resume," Dana Flacco says.
