NFL, the story of Joe Flacco, the miracle of the Cleveland Browns

Hollywood, literature and music have taught us that miracles, sporting and otherwise, happen more easily at this time of year. Christmas, New Year and Epiphany are the perfect setting for unexpected rebirths, sudden blossomings, daring romantic escapes and Cinderellas of all sorts. Between a child who misses the plane and defends the family home from unscrupulous thieves and criminal expertise, a rich man and a poor man whose life is exchanged on a bet and a national hero who “is not a dog, is not a wolf, he only knows what is not”, the instant classic of American fiction in recent months is a quarterback. A man alone by definition despite living among an entire troop, leader of an army that depends on him and on his visions, on his lucidity, on his excesses and on his rigor. Yet, precisely because of this absolute need for perfection, there is no role, in any discipline, capable of making you fall from your pedestal with equal speed and ferocity. The quarterback in question is called Joseph Vincent Flacco, known to all as Joe, or Joe Cool, a literary resurgence of that great pop icon that is Snoopy, and nicknames that in the States are given to anyone who shows a bit of style and carelessness, once they arrive in top of the food chain. And the good Flacco, thank goodness, actually reached the top, more than once.