CANTON, Ohio — Joe Flacco was one of the first among the Broncos players to saunter through the bronzed bust room at the Pro Football Hall of Fame here Wednesday.
He was also one of the few who spent a minute or two in front of the various busts. What goes through a player’s mind as he soaks in a bust of one of the professional football’s 318 greats?
"I think it’s the coolest room in this place," Flacco said in an interview with 9News in the midst of the Hall of Fame Gallery of sculptures. "It’s cool to see all the busts that are lined up from the very beginning. See which ones you might have a connection to. I was here last year but Ray (Lewis) wasn’t on display, yet, so it was cool to go over and see his."
The middle linebacker Ray Lewis was Flacco’s teammate with the Baltimore Ravens for five years. They won Super Bowl 47 together (sorry, Broncos). They’re both Super Bowl MVPs. Lewis was immortalized as a football player last year. While Flacco is not considered a Hall of Famer, Bronco fans have repeatedly heard him say he’s far from finished.
"Everybody who plays football from a young age wants to eventually wind up in this room," Flacco said. "When you get a chance to play in the NFL and have that dream realized – it’s something that never really ends.
"I think that everybody in this room walking around that’s on the Denver Broncos right now hopes they can play well enough in their career and win a couple championships and someday wind up in this room."
The Broncos play the Atlanta Falcons in the Hall of Fame Game here Thursday and each team visited the Hall’s museum on Wednesday evening. Broncos head coach Vic Fangio, a sports fan before he made a living coaching America’s No. 1 sport, gave his team about 15 more minutes to tour than the Falcons had.
Flacco was among the appreciative. He, too, was a fan before he became a starting NFL quarterback for going on 12 seasons. A fan who knows his history. The busts he most enjoyed checking out?
"Obviously some of the quarterbacks," he said. "It was cool now being tied to John (Elway), seeing his. Montana, Marino. I really like Walter Payton and Barry Sanders growing up. It was cool to check out those guys.
"Cool to check out Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, the Colts, guys like that. And even some of the guys you’re not too familiar with, you see their name and it’s something from when I was a kid watching NFL Films pops into my head."
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