'Quarterback' Ep. 3 Review: Joe Flacco's Wife, Kids Take Center Stage Highlighting His Trade to the Bengals

Episode 3 of Netflix’s latest season of “Quarterback” is titled “Crossroads,” but it just as easily could have been named after Dana Flacco.

The show starts and ends with a focus on the Flacco family, and specifically a full story arc for Dana, Joe’s wife, as he goes from Cleveland Browns quarterback to Cincinnati Bengals quarterback.

The episode opens with a shot of just a TV in the Flaccos’ New Jersey home, where Dana essentially is serving as a single mom to five children while Joe is living in Cleveland and playing for the Browns.

The TV is tuned to NFL Network, where Ian Rapaport announces that Flacco has been benched ahead of the team’s Week 5 game in London against the Minnesota Vikings, all while Dana is making breakfast.

Rapaport is breaking the news to the nation, but not to Dana.

“Joe called me, and it was a time he wouldn’t typically call me, so I was like, ‘What’s up?’” She says. “I really thought we had one more game at least. It was really affecting me. Like, already? Now you’re far away.”

The show plays an interview with Joe about the toll everything is taking on his family, especially Dana, who is shown trying to make sure each of their children have their shoes, lunches, water bottles and some sort of food in their stomach before heading off to school.

“She’s doing an incredible job, and it’s not easy,” Joe says. “She’s got five little kids that she’s dragging from this place to that place to this place. You have to be prepared.

“You can tell that really hit her,” he continued. “t’s like ‘we’re gonna spend the next four months without you and you’re really not even getting to do what we thought you were gonna do.’”

That 2.5-minute opening leads into the title page, and the show comes right back to the Flaccos after that, with Dana in the car.

Their oldest sons have a football game Sunday morning, and because the Browns are playing in London with a 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff, the times conflict.

She tries to keep tabs with the Browns game on the phone while watching her sons’ game alongside Joe’s brother, Tom.

The show cuts to several of the young players on the team, one of whom tells Frank Flacco, “Your dad got benched. All the pressure’s on you, bro.”

Frank says, ‘Yeah, I know.”

The producers show Flacco on the bench, watching Dillon Gabriel run the Cleveland offense. He talks about how he’s pouting on the inside but trying not to let it show externally.

Frank Flacco scores a touchdown, does a weak, mini spike and mugs for the Netflix camera.

Dana tells Tom, “He’s as good a spiker as his dad apparently,” and they share a laugh.

While Joe on the bench in London, Daniel Flacco throws a couple of interceptions and the team loses.

“You just need to learn that these things are gonna happen, and you just need to get back out there the next day,” Dana said. “For them to see everything joe is going through, every day is a lesson.”

The show pivots to Tampa for a long, 9.5-minute segment on Baker Mayfield.

Then there is 7.5 minutes on Jayden Daniels and a quick 3.5-minutes with Cam Ward, showing his opening-minute pick 6 against the Colts and his “We ass” quote after the game.

The show pivots back to Mayfield for another nine minutes before returning to Ward for 7.5 minutes, most of which is him sitting in head coach and former Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan’s offense going over what’s gone wrong over the first month of the season.

The focus returns to Flacco for the final four minutes of the episode.

He had Dana come to stay with him in Cleveland after he got back from London, and the plan was for her to stay until the weekend.

But on Tuesday morning he realized he missed a call. It was Cleveland GM Andrew Berry, so Flacco called him back, and Berry informs him the team is thinking about trading him to Cincinnati and asks how he would feel about that.

Dana’s face lights up, and they quickly Facetime their kids, who think they’re lying to them.

“I laughed a little bit, like how crazy is this league?” Joe says.

He called Zac Taylor, who asked when he could get there. Joe says, “give me a few minutes to pack and I’ll do whatever you want.”

Flacco admits he thought he was getting cut, not traded.

The Bengals sent two drivers, one to drive Joe and Dana to Cincinnati so Joe could talk to Taylor on the phone during the ride south, and one to bring Joe’s car to Cincinnati.

“I get to throw to two of the best receivers on the planet, so let’s go,” Joe says.

The episode ends with a stunning drone shot about Paycor Stadium as the sun sets.

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