At Eastern, he will be reunited with his former head coach at Camden Catholic, Rick Brown, now the Vikings' offensive coordinator.
Brown likes to spread the field, and Flacco has been helping his new teammates learn the offense.
Eastern, of course, faces an interesting situation because last year's quarterback, Anthony Gallo, returns. Gallo was also a first-team all-conference choice at linebacker and is one of the Vikings' true defensive leaders.
"Tom takes a little pressure off Anthony because it's very difficult playing 110-115 snaps a game going full speed," Eastern coach Dan Spittal said.
Spittal says there will be packages for both quarterbacks. That said, the 6-foot-1, 165-pound Flacco is expected to see sufficient playing time.
Flacco comes from a family in which he always tried to survive against his bigger brothers, but it has toughened him.
He is the third quarterback in the family. Besides Joe, his brother Mike, currently in the Baltimore Orioles minor-league system, was a starting quarterback in his senior season at Gateway.
His brothers John and Brian graduated from Audubon in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Both were two-way standouts, but neither played quarterback.
"Growing up, because of my brothers, I was always playing against older guys, and I think that really helped me," Tom Flacco said.
He doesn't seem fazed by the competition. Flacco straddles that fine line of being self-assured, but not overconfident.
"I have a lot I have to work on," he said.
His competitiveness isn't one of those things.
"With his four brothers, there is pressure when they have a Wiffle ball game," Brown said. "Tom is a competitor like the rest of them."
