Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers has had one of the better debut NFL seasons at the position in team history.
The first-round rookie out of Boston College caught 77 passes for 858 yards and five touchdowns this year for the top-seeded Ravens. He also added eight carries for 56 yards and another score on the ground.
In short, Flowers has been a revelation for a team that has notoriously struggled drafting players at his position. His rookie season has been the best in franchise history from a yardage standpoint. He’s among notable company like Marquise Brown, Torrey Smith, and Mark Andrews.
Baltimore fans will certainly be rooting for Flowers’ success in today’s fast-approaching AFC Championship showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs. It could prove crucial to the Ravens’ chances of advancing to their first Super Bowl in over a decade.
A Closer Look at Zay Flowers’ Family
Also rooting Flowers on will be his siblings. Whether or not he gets enough tickets comped to invite all of them to his home games is another matter entirely.
Flowers is the 11th of 14 children in his immediate family — 10 sons and four daughters. That’s a fact that Flowers is constantly cognizant of, literally.
He has “11 of 14” tattooed on his forearm. Flowers also wears jersey No. 4 because he’s the fourth youngest amongst his siblings, he revealed in an interview with Myprotein.
Having a family that size does increase the likelihood for tragedy to strike, and the Flowers family has unfortunately dealt with a few.
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Zay’s mother, Jackie Walden, passed away when he was just five years old after head injuries suffered from a fall. He also had an older brother, Martin, who was murdered in a violent crime.
Fortunately, a large family means a large support system to fall back on, and Flowers will frequently mention how much family means to him in interviews. He said as much in a 2021 interview with Andscape.
“Family means everything to me. That’s all I got. That’s who I do it for,” said Flowers. “They are the reason why I keep going every day.”
He’d reveal in the same interview that growing up in a large family helped to hone his competitive nature. Whether it was competing athletically, for a snack, the remote control, or merely a place to sit, Flowers had to be at his best if he wanted to come out victorious.
“It was competitive every day [in my household]. Every day, we fought to be better at everything. In our house, we had fun with the people we love,” Flowers told The Undefeated.
“When I was 4, I would be in the front yard with full football pads on playing with my brothers. We would try to run each other over and juke each other out all the time.”
When Zay’s mother died, the role of raising over a dozen children fell on his father, Willie Flowers, single-handedly. Zay recalled in an interview with the Ravens’ team website what it meant to him as a young man to watch his father tackle that challenge head-on.
“I used to see him get up and go to work at 4 a.m. in the morning; he did that every day Monday through Friday, and then he would get up Saturday, wash our clothes at the wash house, cook everybody breakfast and take us to football games. Then do the same thing Sunday, and then go back to work Monday. So, just seeing him do that, it gave me my drive.”
.@ZayFlowers wasted no time giving back to his biggest supporters, gifting his Dad with a brand new car 🥹 🚗 pic.twitter.com/oqNVeHXrpK
— NFL (@NFL) May 16, 2023
Zay’s father undoubtedly played a role in instilling the work ethic and discipline the dynamic young pass catcher is known for. He got to return the favor, at least somewhat, last May when he gifted his father a brand-new Mercedes.
We’ll know soon enough if his family will enjoy the gift of cheering their kin on in Super Bowl LVIII.
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