Tony Parker, Mike Trout, and Joe Flacco

I'm going to continue with the "three things" theme from last week.  This week it's three players from the big three sports...Parker from my favorite NBA team the Spurs, Trout from my favorite MLB team the Angels, and Flacco who just became the highest paid player in NFL history.

Is Joe Flacco worth the contract he got?  I would say no, but it's hard to fault the Raven's organization for being willing to pay 120.6 million for 6 years to the QB that just led you to a Super Bowl win. 

In an article titled, I'm Worth What I'm Worth, on the Los Angeles Times website, Flacco said "Listen, winning the Super Bowl and winning the Super Bowl MVP doesn't make me as valueable as I am."  I'm disagreeing with Flacco on that point.  If he doesn't win the Super Bowl and the MVP, Flacco doesn't get this contract...I'm positive on that.

Flacco does have a few accomplishments to back him up.  He tied Joe Montana for the best TD/INT performance in a playoffs with 11 TDs and 0 INTs.  No QB has won a playoff game in his first 5 seasons...except Flacco.  No QB has won more road games in the playoffs (6).  He is tied with Brady with 9 playoff wins in his first five seasons.  He hasn't missed a start and 63 regular season wins is the highest total for any QB over the last 5 years.

On the other hand, Flacco has "only" a 60.2 career completion percentage, never passed for over 4000 yards, and never thrown for more than 25 TDs in a season.  In the current passing era, that doesn't put you in the status of top QBs in the league.  His TD-to-INT numbers are 102/56.  The most surprising thing I saw was that Flacco has never been voted to the Pro Bowl.

Does those last two paragraphs add up to the highest paid NFL player ever?  Not in my book. I like the guy, but he's now going to have to face the pressure of living up to that contract.