Joe Flacco plays Ravens-Browns game while wife gives birth to second child

As John Harbaugh tells it, Joe Flacco's ideal plan was to make sure he didn't miss the birth of his second child.

Flacco's wife, Dana, went into labor Sunday at a hospital in New Jersey. Joe, who signed a $120.6 million contract with the Ravens this offseason, had a tough decision to make. Play the game or skip it to be there for his wife.

"Joe comes up to me at breakfast and he tells me what is going on, that Dana is at the hospital and she is in labor," Harbaugh told reporters following Baltimore's 14-6 win over Cleveland. "Then, he tells me a couple of hours later, what the dilation is and I could see that he was praying. But I found out that he had a plan with some of the other players. The plan was — that he really couldn't follow through with — he had planned to come to me and tell me that she's in labor and he was getting in his car and heading for New Jersey to be there for it. I'm so glad he didn't do it. He would've had me ‘hook, line and sinker and in the boat.' To play with that on your mind, I think obviously says a lot, and we appreciate that."

That's a pretty good excuse to get out of work — having a baby. It's the second child in 15 months for the Flaccos. Dana had a son and his name is Daniel.

After the game, Flacco admitted to the media that he would think about his son on the sideline when he wasn't in the game. He said he focused on football when he was out there with his teammates, though.

Flacco finished 22-33 for 211 yards and a touchdown. Even though the Ravens had a sloppy 14-6 finish, getting a win the day his son was born will forever be a day to remember for Flacco.

"Anytime you have a child, it's one of your best days," Flacco said. "The game didn't go exactly how we wanted it to, but that's how we've won football games around here."

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