Flacco Family Flocks to Big Easy for Big Game

Huck Finn’s Restaurant and Sports Bar is known for having some of the best shrimp po-boys and jambalaya in New Orleans. It’s also known as a great place to catch a sporting event with friends.

By Sunday night, it may be known as the new home of the Joe Flacco Fan Club.

Haddon Township High School senior Kim Flacco is one of about 60 of Joe’s family members and friends who hopped on a plane to New Orleans Thursday. Her cousin Joe is picking up the tab to ensure he'll have the people who mean the most to him as close as possible.

Parents Steve and Karen Flacco will attend the game, but the rest of the crew will watch from a private room at Huck Finn’s, sweating out every moment of Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVII matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.

“I’m so excited to go and so thankful he is giving the chance to let us go,” said .

“It just shows you what kind of person Joe is.”

Joe Flacco’s rise from a skinny, yet strong-armed quarterback at Audubon High School, to an intriguing prospect at the University of Delaware, to a starting NFL signal caller has been well-documented. Last season it looked like Flacco might go to his fist Super Bowl after leading the Ravens deep into New England Patriots territory. However, a missed field goal prevented the game from going into overtime, leaving Flacco—and his family—stunned.

This time around, there was no late drama as Baltimore handled New England, 28-13, much to the joy of the family.

“Obviously, it was a lot better than last year,” Kim said with a laugh. “Our whole family was going crazy. It’s great to see Joe do something like this, especially when we watch the Super Bowl every year and you never think it will happen.”

As much as Kim and her family have enjoyed the ride, it hasn’t been pure fun all the time. There have been a lot of nerve-racking and stressful times—particularly when the Ravens trailed late against the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional Championship. Flacco rallied the team with a late touchdown and eventually out-dueled future-Hall-of-Fame quarterback Peyton Manning in overtime.

“There are times where I get really nervous, especially near the end,” Kim said. “They are close games, so we all get nervous.”

She said watching a game that features a family member in a prominent position is “definitely different and a lot cooler and more exciting” than watching an Eagles game or anyone else playing on Sunday.

She also doesn’t mind dealing with the questions about Joe while in school. In the fall, Flacco spoke about how it wasn’t really a hot topic around the hallways of Haddon Township, but that quickly changed.

“It’s a lot different now,” she said. “People have been saying stuff all week about how cool and crazy it is.”

Kim and the rest of the Flacco convoy will pull for Joe with all of their power, and will certainly have Huck Finn’s rocking by kickoff. The group obviously hopes to see Joe get a chance to hold up the Lombardi Trophy, but regardless of the outcome, Kim expressed how proud and excited the whole family is about what he has done.

“The whole thing is just so exciting,” she said. “It has really been amazing what Joe is doing.”