Joe Flacco saw the picture of his 50-foot likeness hanging on Sports Authority Field at Mile High when wide receiver Torrey Smith texted it to him a couple nights ago.
Flacco's reaction? Yikes.
"I thought enough people don't like me already," he said. "I think this is another reason to dislike me. But I don't really have anything to do with that. It's just one of those weird things."
The decision to hang the posters were made by the NFL, who is promoting the league's marquee kickoff game to a national audience.
Flacco and Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh both empathized with angry Broncos fans, who don't like seeing the player that beat them with a 70-yard bomb in last year's AFC divisional game, hanging on their stadium.
A Broncos sportscaster vandalized Flacco posters around town with drawings and tape, and recruited a "militia" to join him. Fans started a petition to try to get the giant poster removed. Denver fans have equated it to the NFL hanging a poster of Tom Brady on M&T Bank Stadium at the start of last season.
"I mean I can't imagine that people in our city would be too happy if somebody from another team was hanging on our stadium," Flacco said.
"I can't envision that," Harbaugh added. "I don't really understand it. I understand why the Broncos and their fans feel the way they do."
Flacco was trying to distance himself from the poster as much as possible, while subtly laughing at the same time.
"I figure I'm getting some heat for it, but like I said, I didn't go post it up there myself," he said. "I said to somebody, it's kind of like high school, you remember some people going to take flags from kids' houses and stuff like that. I didn't do that – the players didn't do that."
Then Flacco shrugged.
"It's all cool, being hated is not a bad thing," he said.
Terrell Suggs, who is often public enemy No. 1 when he goes to opposing stadiums (and enjoys it), played dumb to the whole thing.
"That's real?" he said. "That's kind of weird, don't you think?"
Harbaugh said the Ravens are already preparing for a raucous environment at Mile High. Broncos fans are a passionate bunch, and will be especially jacked up for a season-opener against the team that knocked them out of last year's playoffs.
So Harbaugh doesn't think the poster controversy will affect anything.
"I know it will have no bearing on the football game," Harbaugh said.
