Raven Country

Former Ravens QB Joe Flacco Honors Jacoby Jones

The Baltimore Ravens still feel the loss of Super Bowl hero Jacoby Jones.

Jon Alfano

Sep 16, 2012; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (5) celebrates a touchdown with wide receiver Jacoby Jones (12) during the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-Imagn Images
Sep 16, 2012; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (5) celebrates a touchdown with wide receiver Jacoby Jones (12) during the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-Imagn Images / Howard Smith-Imagn Images
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On the morning of July 14, the Baltimore Ravens community received the heartbreaking news that Super Bowl 47 hero Jacoby Jones had tragically passed away at the age of 40.

Jones played nine NFL seasons with four different teams, but his 2012 playoff run made him a legend in Baltimore. The All-Pro return man scored three huge touchdowns during that run, and without him, the Ravens likely don't bring home their second Lombardi trophy.

In the three months since Jones' passing, figures from the Ravens and the NFL as a whole have made loving tributes in his honor, and they're still coming out today.

Recently, former Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who played with Jones throughout the wide receiver's entire tenure in Baltimore, paid tribute to his former teammate on the "Greenlight Podcast with Chris Long." Rather than focus on Jones the football player, Flacco mostly paid tribute to Jones the person.

"You talk about the types of guys that are in locker rooms," Flacco said. "Like, you want that guy in your locker room. You want him out on the practice field when you're out there going through those long, tough days because he is going to brighten it up. I mean, just dancing and talking [crap]. Always had a smile on his face. [I] feel very fortunate to get to play with him.

Flacco and Jones made a lot of big plays together, but perhaps none bigger than the Mile High Miracle. In the final minute of the 2012 Divisional Round game against the Denver Broncos, Flacco threw a 70-yard bomb to Jones to tie the game, and the Ravens would eventually win in overtime.

After that play, the Ravens knew they could win it all.

"That throw, that catch, that game, I've never been on more of a high after an NFL – any game in my life than I was after that game," Flacco said. "It lasted a long time. I was on the bus an hour and a half after the game still like screaming to people on the phone because we were just so – there was so much energy in that locker room. It probably was something that carried us for a couple weeks after that.

"There was something mentally that when we won that game, it's like, 'We're winning. We're winning the whole thing.' We went to New England the next week and I don't think we batted an eye. Obviously we had played those guys a few times in the years before that and even that year to get that confidence but there was something that [the Broncos] game, winning that game, did to us that solidified in our minds that we were the team to win [the Super Bowl]."

Flacco, who won NFL Comeback Player of the Year with the Cleveland Browns and is now with the Indianapolis Colts, previously attended Jones' funeral in New Orleans. The entire Ravens community is understandibly still heartbroken over Jones' passing, and Flacco is right there with them.

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Jon Alfano
JON ALFANO

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