A Top-Tier Quarterback Set to Be Paid Like One

Shortly before the N.F.L. draft five years ago, a reporter visiting Joe Flacco’s childhood home a few miles from Philadelphia was asked by his father, Stephen, “You draw the short straw with this story?” His son was sprawled on a living room sofa, his long legs stretched out while he watched Matt Ryan being interviewed on television.

Flacco was the accidental prospect then, so unsure about his football future that after his junior season in college, he asked his football coach if it was O.K. if he played baseball. His coach informed him he was going to be a draft choice, prompting Flacco to reply, “Really, Coach?”

Flacco is a prospect no more, although Monday, owing to his sleeplessness, he had the same look of detachment as he did that spring day in the home where he still shared a bedroom with his brother, where a batting cage sat in the backyard. He had just received the keys to a Corvette — he was shocked, he said — for being the most valuable player of the Super Bowl, won by the Baltimore Ravens, 34-31, over the San Francisco 49ers.

He was off to Walt Disney World, then to New York to appear on David Letterman’s show Monday night and then eventually back to Baltimore for the requisite victory parade. The vertiginous climb that carried him from also-ran at the University of Pittsburgh has put him ahead of Ryan, who was drafted before him, and into the stratosphere of championship quarterbacks.

How far he has risen will be quantified later this off-season when the Ravens will have to come to contract terms with him. No other football free agent has done more in one year to solidify his bargaining position than Flacco. He turned down the Ravens’ offer last July — reported to be about $16 million a year — telling his agent, Joe Linta, that he thought he would improve. Linta said he thought Flacco should be paid like a top-five quarterback. There was no animosity with the Ravens, but there also have not been any negotiations since then. Now there will be, under entirely different circumstances, a snapshot of the shifting landscape teams face when they roll the dice on contracts.