mic\u2019d up during a Browns organized team activities practice, <\/a>and his spring sidekick Shedeur Sanders asked if he \u201cever hit that dance,\u201d demonstrating the \u201cschmoney,\u201d with bent arms moving in and out, and knees bending alternately. <\/p>\n\u201cDefinitely not,\u201d the buttoned-up Flacco said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever hit a public dance move in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Sanders, 23, can make the 40-year-old Flacco laugh like a sixth grader, he can\u2019t make him dance like an NFL rookie. No way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what dance he was talking about, but he\u2019s not getting me to do anything,\u201d Flacco said with a laugh during his podium interview on Day 2 of Browns minicamp on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
And it\u2019s safe to say you won\u2019t see him busting a move on TikTok with his wife Dana or one of their five kids, ages 7 to 13. Not happening. He\u2019d be more apt to be using his Kohl\u2019s cash just in the nick of time along with his contemporary Kirk Cousins. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, TikTok dances,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cThe fact that people, that\u2019s different too. This generation, the fact that people want to get on their phones and show people the most, like that\u2019s embarrassing. You\u2019re an adult. Be an adult, it\u2019s just like I can\u2019t wrap my head around that. And I get it. You have kids and you want to have fun with your kids. Like have fun with your kids in private. That\u2019s what I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
While sharing the minicamp grass with dozens of players young enough to almost be his kids, Flacco \u2014 seven years older than offensive coordinator Tommy Rees \u2014 flipped into get-off-my-lawn mode on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I initially came in (in 2008), I think Twitter started right around \u201907, \u201908,\u201d he said. \u201cI can remember the first time I walked into the cafeteria in Baltimore and somebody was like, Hey, you mind if we tweet this? And nobody knew what that meant. I think the evolution has kind of come from, that\u2019s a method to kind of see some stuff and have some fun to like it\u2019s the main news source. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo the difference now is everybody\u2019s getting their stuff from there and it\u2019s treated a little bit more seriously because that\u2019s the main news source, but you still have the same thing you always had, which is a million different opinions. So it kind of blends your actual news source with a bunch of other stuff. And now I think we live in this world where everything you see on there, there\u2019s a good portion of people that are taking whatever you see on there very seriously. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd sometimes it\u2019s not the case \u2026 I\u2019ve been on Instagram. That\u2019s the only thing I\u2019ve ever logged in on in my life. I won\u2019t download the other things because I don\u2019t miss them. If you told me you\u2019re taking Instagram away, I\u2019ve been on it. I\u2019m too far down the road, but Twitter and all those other things, I won\u2019t even download it on my phone just because I know it\u2019s a trap to just get sucked in.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Sanders livestreams every aspect of his rookie experience he can, the only live stream Flacco wants anything to do with is one on which he\u2019ll take the kids fishing. The rest of the live-tweeting and such, in his mind, is for the birds. But don\u2019t suggest he\u2019s guarded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m guarded at all,\u201d he said. \u201cI think honestly, if you talk to me in person, I\u2019ll tell you a lot. I\u2019ll be pretty honest with you. But yeah, social media, no chance. No chance. There\u2019s a part of me, there\u2019s a piece of me at times that\u2019s like, \u2018gosh, should I be this guy that does this a little bit?\u2019 Because I feel like in order to have a good social media, you do want to be honest and show what you do in your life, but it\u2019s just like, eh, that\u2019s a job in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
He does acknowledge that living in world of TikTok and Snapchat players is \u201cdifferent. I mean, listen, if I grew up when they did, I\u2019d probably be \u2026 my personality is what it is. I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be dancing on camera, but yeah, I would be more similar to them than I would probably admit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Social media aside, Flacco is like a kid again in this camp with Sanders, 23, and fellow rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel, 24, in the quarterback room. Kenny Pickett, 27, for that matter too. It\u2019s almost like being at home with his four sons and a daughter, the Flacco Flock.<\/p>\n
During Browns media day on Monday, Flacco and Gabriel punked Martin Emerson Jr. and Grant Delpit by recreating their duo photo, nailing the poses perfectly. He won\u2019t do the Dougie, but he\u2019ll willingly mug for the cameras for a good laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that was kind of harmless,\u201d he said. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t that embarrassing. That was like lightly, mildly embarrassing, but whatever. And all I was doing was copying somebody else. I can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost every time Sanders sidles up to Flacco in the locker room or on the field, Flacco bursts out laughing, eyes crinkling. Sanders, with plenty of Prime Time charm and charisma, has that effect on coaches and teammates. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes we\u2019re laughing together, sometimes you\u2019re chuckling because of whatever they\u2019re thinking as the young guys,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cBut I would say I\u2019ve had a smile on my face a good portion of the time I\u2019ve been here this spring, so it\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rapport between Sanders and papa Joe hasn\u2019t been lost on Kevin Stefanski, who\u2019s only three years older than Flacco and can relate more to him in the non-social media realm and dad world than he can the younger guys. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust having (Sanders) in the meeting room, he brings a great personality,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cTo see those two bounce ideas off of each other, is hilarious. Joe will say a few things and I\u2019ll be like, \u2018Joe, Shedeur wasn\u2019t born then.\u2019 So it\u2019s just, he\u2019s got great energy, great kid, working his tail off.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Sanders, Flacco is such a novelty that he can\u2019t get enough of him. A 40-year-old former Super Bowl MVP with a cannon arm and Comeback Player of The Year Award from 2023 who might just beat out the three younger challengers for the job. Content, content, content. <\/p>\n
\u201cJoe\u2019s the old guy in the room, so I joke with Joe all the time every day I see him,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you all my jokes, but whenever you see them or they\u2019re mic\u2019d up or anything, all that stuff is real. It\u2019s spur of the moment and then after that, it\u2019s time to lock back in. Our minds are always consistently and constantly moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside the building, Sanders will wind Flacco up and watch him spin tales. With 17 years of NFL lore stored inside that brain, and plenty of life experience, Flacco is only too happy to oblige. Besides, he\u2019s got a brand-new audience, and all of the old stories are new again. <\/p>\n
\u201cShedeur might throw something out there and then I could just kind of build off of that,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cI can think of one time, we had a meeting at 9:00 and I think we were lifting at 9:20, so we had 15 minutes and somebody started it off with, we were talking about \u2014 this wasn\u2019t even a football story \u2014 we were talking about vacations and do you actually like going on them? And I was like, \u2018Eh, sometimes, but not necessarily.\u2019 And that turns into five stories and the next thing you know it\u2019s 9:17 and you\u2019re like, all right guys, see you later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vacillating between feeling spry and ancient, Flacco finds himself reminding the young guys how much easier they have it now, with short practices and no two-a-days. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy first three years, before that CBA hit and John (Harbaugh) ran hard camps as it was, I think he learned from Andy Reid,\u201d he said. \u201cI told them we had 110, 120 plays scripted. We would round a two-minute period and it\u2019d be like \u2018ones, twos, threes, ones twos, threes, alright, twos, let\u2019s go. You get one more.\u2019 And I was like, whoa, we just did a 45 minute, two minute period.\u201d<\/p>\n
And like with any respectable fish tale, the catch gets bigger every time. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m telling the stories, of course I embellish a little bit, probably add a half hour to each practice,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cBut it was different. And the difference was that even when it got easier in 2011, I think everybody that was playing at that point had been through two days at some point in their life. Guys that come to the NFL now have never done it. We\u2019re out there for an hour and 15 minutes and guys think it\u2019s hard. Our OTAs were over two hours for sure in Baltimore when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n
In minicamp, Flacco didn\u2019t take many 11-on-11 reps because he doesn\u2019t need them. But don\u2019t be fooled. He knows this offense better than any of the other quarterbacks, and he can still deliver heat-seeking missiles with the best of them. If he wins the job out of training camp, don\u2019t be shocked. <\/p>\n
Now, if he could just show you the schmoney.<\/p>\n
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial<\/a> of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com’s Browns reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEREA, Ohio \u2014 So you think you can dance? Joe Flacco certainly doesn\u2019t. That became evident last week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,29284,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-125065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-cleveland-browns-veterans-minicamp-2025","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114672733041797395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}