My effort to see if Joe Flacco would change up his pregame entrance didn't work out.
There was no spicing it up Thursday night. There was no spice at all. Just the usual fast, head-down run.
But Flacco definitely showed a little something later that night.
I'm ripping off my cousin's suggestion and dubbing it "The Spicy Spike."
If you haven't fully appreciated it by now (or just got caught up in the touchdown itself), watch this video of Flacco's celebration after his 1-yard touchdown run against the Browns. I absolutely loved it.
What was even better than Flacco's merriment was his quote about it after the game. It's my early frontrunner for Quote of the Year from the unlikeliest candidate.
"I was just excited, and that's what white guys do when they get excited, I guess," Flacco said.
Amazingness. I tracked down some Ravens players before they left for the weekend to get their take on Flacco's Spicy Spike.
I wanted to get wide receiver Jacoby Jones – the king of celebrations –but he was gone. I went with linebacker Dannell Ellerbe. He wasn't so impressed.
"It was alright to see some excitement, but it just looked kind of … weird," Ellerbe said with an expression that seemed like he smelled something horrible.
OK, so how about a white guy's take? I mean, since Flacco is speaking for the entire demographic.
Outside linebacker Paul Kruger flashed a nice move after a second-quarter sack, subtly waving his fingers as if he were the conductor of an orchestra. He said he got it because he just happened to see the band.
So what's his take on Flacco's spike?
"I will say this, compared to my celebration it was sorry," he said, bursting into laughter. "But for Joe, it was top notch. You're not going to get very much from the guy. But he did what he had to do and he was pretty excited about it."
I went even closer to home to get one more opinion. I talked to backup center Gino Gradkowski, another white guy who also went to Delaware. Did Flacco pick up his moves in college? Seems like this may be a Blue Hen thing.
"I thought it was kind of sweet," Gradkowski said. "It wasn't a celebration. It was almost like, 'That's right!' I enjoyed it. That's the kind of fire and intensity that you like to see in your quarterback for sure."
