I should have made this comic years ago but oh well, Flacco is still a starter and he’s still pulling this stuff so it’s still relevant.

I was watching the Ravens/Bengals Thursday night game (Which was actually watchable football!) and working on the draft of another comic idea when I watched Joe Flacco unleash what is basically the Joe Flacco finishing move. Goku has the Kahmehameha, Mortal Kombat characters have fatalities, Stone Cold has the Stunner, and Joe Flacco has the Deep Ball PI.

I don’t know how often he actually gets it, but it certainly feels like a down-low meme that Joe Flacco tends to get the PI calls a lot. I’ve seen it discussed in hushed annoyance in forums sometimes. Pass Interference is already one of those penalties that is bound to make a slew of people angry because 70% of the time it’s honestly questionable, even in slow motion. Nothing takes the fun out of a deep pass like seeing the ball fall to the ground, followed by tons of flags, followed by the DB holding his arms out in disbelief.

Ticky tack PI is like beating a boss you have a hard time fighting by getting the boss stuck in some geometry so you can just cheese him. You won, you’ll take it, but deep down you know your shame. You didn’t earn that shit. The most righteous moment in football is when the refs call a blatant penalty against the other team correctly. YEAH. YOU COMMITTED PI. NOW YOU SUFFER. It’s like finding a cheater and failing him out of the class, and that cheater was a jerk you hated already. Bad penalties leave you feeling guilty. You are glad you got a first down but you aren’t proud. It’s like momentarily being exposed to your own privilege.

I don’t think the Ravens score before halftime without that PI (Although I remember a deep pass right before it where Dre kirkpatrick totally did commit PI and nobody threw a flag, so maybe it was justice?). Without that score, the game is probably less interesting in the long run. I was pretty convinced the Bengals were gonna Bungles that game away at the end but they held it together. Andy Dalton threw 4 TDs. In Primetime. Football can be so weird.

I hope this trend of relatively decent football continues all season. This is the first time in a few years where week 1 didn’t totally suck.