They shared a bedroom in the family's two-story frame house that was awash in sports posters: Muhammad Ali glaring over a fallen opponent, Deion Sanders straight-arming a would-be tackler, Michael Jordan sky-walking to the rim and about to dunk over some poor fool.
Their demeanor was the same, too. In old family photos, the two often wear the same look: intense, serious, even wary.
In one snapshot taken during a vacation at the Jersey shore, six family members are smiling.
Two are not. You can guess the two.
At the age of 6 or 7, Joe was so obsessed with basketball that he announced to his dad he wanted to be black and bald like Michael Jordan.
"The black part, I can tell you, it ain't going to happen," Steve told his oldest. "You can probably get a good tan, seeing as how you're Italian. And the bald part - if it happens, you're probably not going to like it."
Mike, on the other hand, wasn't content merely to be the next Jordan growing up.
"I thought I was going to be like Bo Jackson," he said. "I was going to be everything: a basketball player, football player, baseball player. Then I was going to go into NASCAR, hockey, you name it."
A rivalry naturally developed between the two hyper-competitive brothers. Who could beat who, who was the best athlete in the neighborhood, who had bragging rights at dinner that night.
"Oh, it was definitely a rivalry," Mike said, "probably more on my part than Joe's. Every once in a while I'd get on his nerves, think I could beat him at something, and he'd have to put me back in my place."
At Audubon High School, Joe played football, basketball and baseball - he even led the Green Wave to the state baseball title.
But it was clear to everyone that football was his ticket to the big-time. He went off to play briefly for the University of Pittsburgh, then on to a stellar career at the University of Delaware and a selection as the Ravens' No. 1 choice in the 2008 NFL draft.
But this is what happens when you grow up playing sports year-round and trash-talking with your brother about who's the best athlete in the family: You get this restless feeling when you're not playing and trash-talking.
This feeling led Joe to seek out his football coach at Delaware, K.C. Keeler, in the winter after his junior year.
"He pops in the office, sits down, shuts the door, which was unusual for him," Keeler recalled. "You could see something was on his mind."
