Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco and safety Ed Reed made light of what appeared to be potential conflict within the team by staging a fake fight before practice Thursday.
According to the Ravens’ website, Flacco and Reed pretended to get into an argument in front of the media by playfully shouting back and forth.
The fake fight was a response to the questions about the team’s chemistry sparked by Reed’s comments on the radio earlier in the week. Reed said that Flacco didn’t appear to have a hold on the offense during the team’s win over the Texans last weekend.
A few days later, Reed says there’s no longer a conflict.
“We’re past it,” Reed said Thursday. “We’re focused on the game at task now.
“We’re good, man. We’re honest with each other as a team. We’re not focused on that … We’re thinking about this game. What happened last game is last week.”
Flacco said on Wednesday that Reed’s comments were “not that big of a deal.” The All-Pro safety agrees.
“We were critical of ourselves in that game and that’s every teammate of mine, talking about the game that we watched on film. We weren’t satisfied with our effort,” Reed said.
“In every locker room you probably wouldn’t say things like that in the media because what’s said around here to ourselves probably shouldn’t be broadcast publicly because the public would never understand. Even fans in Baltimore would never understand. I know Joe is a smart quarterback. He’s our quarterback, regardless of anything.”
The team appears to be pulling together at the right time. They face the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.
