Joe Flacco personifies a Cleveland Browns team that has stayed ready all season

BEREA — Joe Flacco was asked the question a lot around his suburban Philadelphia hometown in the fall.

"You have people come up to you and they just kind of like, 'Oh, man, how's retirement?'" the Browns quarterback said in an interview with a small group of beat writers last week. "And you don't really want to get into it with people. So sometimes you're just like, ‘Oh, yeah, man, going good.’ And other times you're like: ‘Well, I'm not actually retired. I do want to play. So we'll see what happens.’"

The truth, though, was that Flacco didn't know what was going to happen. He knew what should've already happened, which was that he was signed to a team to at least come to training camp, or provide some veteran depth in its quarterback room.

August turned to September, September to October, then October to November. All the while, Flacco — the 38-year-old big-armed quarterback with a decade-and-a-half years' worth of NFL experience and a Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award — was at home handling dad duties like fixing breakfasts and car-pooling around his five kids.

And getting reminded regularly of what Flacco should've, but wasn't, doing at that moment.

"You are picking the kids up and guys are saying, 'Hey, anybody call you yet?' Flacco said. "'Anybody call you?' So they're reminding you of it. And I'm, like, 'Yeah, nope. Haven't gotten a call yet, man. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. It's crazy. I know you would think they would do this.'"

The Halloween decorations had been put away for only a couple of weeks when a team finally did call. The Browns reached out shortly after Deshaun Watson was placed on injured reserve on Nov. 15 with a shoulder injury that required surgery.

Flacco got on a plane shortly after that to do a workout for the Browns on Nov. 17, then signed a practice-squad deal on Nov. 20. The rest — the 4-1 record as a starter, the four consecutive 300-yard passing games, the 13 touchdowns in five games — has become part of a much-larger story of the Browns that has been unlike anything the area has seen.

In fact, Flacco has become the personification of a Browns team that, despite an injured list that features nine starters, finished 11-6 in the regular season and plays at the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon in an AFC wild card game. He's the one who has come to symbolize the almost MacGyver-like way the Browns have filled whatever hole has opened up and kept on chugging along.

Yes, the same Flacco who was an 11-year nemesis of the Browns while quarterbacking their AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens. The same Flacco who was 18-3 against Cleveland during his first 15 seasons in the league, including 17-3 while with the Ravens.

"The fact that I'm playing for different colors in a different organization, I've done that," said Flacco, who spent 2019 in Denver and 2020-22 mostly with the New York Jets. "So why does it matter that it's the Browns and the Ravens. … But when you're talking about just being with a group of guys, that's what my job is, that locker room right now. That changes every year and it completely turns over every couple years. So it doesn't really make that big of a deal."

It's also the same Flacco who won just three of his last 17 starts before he landed with the Browns. Granted, many of those were with bad teams in Denver and New York, but both places also felt the answer eventually was with someone younger, someone who wasn't Joe Flacco.

Which is something even Flacco acknowledged may have contributed to his fall spent throwing to family members in the backyard instead of to NFL receivers in packed stadiums.

"Here’s the other thing is, even if they don’t care in the front office, I think the overall feel in the media and stuff like that, it does matter," Flacco said. "You know what I mean? I think I said it before, I’m not that sexy of a pick. It’s, like, how do you in the offseason get your fan base excited about bringing in this guy that everybody thinks they know who he is and has been around for 15 years?"

The only problem with that line of thinking has been exposed since Flacco took over. The quarterback's numbers have been some of the most impressive by a Browns quarterback in decades.

No Browns quarterback has thrown for 300 yards or more in four consecutive starts. No Browns quarterback has thrown for as many touchdowns in their first five games, or as many yards in that time frame.

It's coming from the arm of the same quarterback who no NFL team — even the Browns — was willing to call for half of the season. The arm of a quarterback who had been asked how retirement was going enough to look toward his next iteration as the all-day QB in a family backyard football game.

"It's tough because I am sure, part of me was probably thinking, all right, what am I going to do next?" Flacco said. "I probably played my last game, and then part of me was thinking, OK, but you got to stay focused, you could still play. So you got all kinds of emotions going through. I wouldn't say it was an everyday thought. I wasn't in control of it. All I could do was do what I was doing to make sure that I was ready in case it did happen."

The call did happen and Flacco was ready. Now comes the next chapter in the story — can the regular-season success carry on into the playoffs?

Flacco knows what playoff success looks like because he may have put together arguably as amazing a postseason run as any quarterback in the modern era when he guided the 2012 Ravens on their four-game run to the championship in Super Bowl 47. That postseason, he threw for 1,140 yards, 11 touchdowns, no interceptions and a 117.2 passer rating.

Numbers like that, coupled with the Browns defense playing to the level at which it has played for most of the regular season, could put Flacco in position to hoist the Lombardi Trophy for the second time in his life. That thought has no doubt crossed his mind over the last month since taking over as the Browns' starter, when it hasn't been lost in two other thoughts.

One has been about how much fun he's having right now playing. And the other is about where he was just two months ago.

"I do get excited, I always have," Flacco said. "But, man, everybody always asks just about being at home. And I think just the last few years in general, just being a backup and feeling like I could play and then sitting at home and still feeling like I could play, it does give you a new perspective on things and how fortunate you are to do this."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Joe Flacco personifies a Browns team ready for the NFL playoffs