Joe Flacco: From neighboring Audubon to the Super Bowl

Only several dozen people can lay claim to having been the starting quarterback in a Super Bowl game: And come Sunday, Audubon High School graduate Joe Flacco will get to add his name to the list.

The odds were heavily stacked against the Camden County native, who was ranked as the 39th best pro-style QB coming out of high school in 2003. He started his career on the bench at the University of Pittsburgh before transferring to the University of Delaware, where he had to sit out a year before playing in 2006.

But things started to look up in 2007, when Flacco led his team to an 8-3 record while throwing for 4,263 yards with 23 touchdowns and five interceptions. He took his team to the title game that year before falling to Appalachian State.

Despite having only one standout season for a team not known as a football power, Flacco attracted enough attention to be drafted in the first round — 18th overall — by the Baltimore Ravens in 2008.

Due to injury and illness, Flacco was thrust into the starting role from the beginning. He quickly made it clear the Ravens didn’t make a mistake by taking his team to the playoffs that year and every year since — culminating with the team’s Super Bowl appearance this year.

So now he has the chance to have the last laugh. On Sunday, he can prove all the people who said he wasn’t good enough wrong by winning the Super Bowl. Whether or not that happens, though: South Jersey already knows he’s a champion.

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