Flacco: Quoth the Ravens, Forevermore!

Joe Flacco is one rich dude.

He gladly signed away the next six years of his life for a total of $120.6million, which includes $52 million in guaranteed money.

This deal makes Flacco the highest-paid player in NFL history.

Somehow, that sounds like a claim that McDonald's makes the world's best hamburgers because they make more of them than anyone else.

You'd think the biggest payouts go to the best players. Joe Flacco isn’t even the best quarterback in the AFC. Tom Brady already has that title. But when it came to contract negotiations, Brady -- on the face of it -- took less money than he deserved to keep the team’s salary cap competitive. Flacco made sure he got every dollar he could squeeze, plus a few extra million.

At the post signing press conference, Joe Flacco said that the deal was more about respect and less about money. Yeah, right. Money doesn’t equal respect, not even to Aretha Franklin. The only way to earn respect in the NFL is to literally win it on a consistent basis, and although Joe has had great success in the regular season, this season was the first time he directed Baltimore to the Super Bowl championship in his five seasons.

Brady got the Patriots there in his second year. Not to mention the fact that he won that game as well as two more in his first five years.

The fundamental principle of capitalism states that you're worth whatever someone is willing to pay you. Give Flacco full marks for that. He’s an elite quarterback and deserves elite quarterback prices. He just isn’t the best and this mega-deal doesn't do anything to alter that fact. The only way this contract pays off for the Ravens is if Flacco puts together a Brady-esque career in Baltimore, complete with a fistful of Super Bowl rings ... and maybe even a supermodel wife.

Yeah, right.