Flutie Retires

The Flutie Chronology

Mike Beamish, Vancouver Sun Published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland, Oct. 23, 1962.
Toddler years: Falls asleep each night, cradling a football in his arms.
Football beginnings: Family moves to Melbourne, Florida in 1968. Doug plays first flag football game in Florida tyke league.
First contact: Weighing only 63 pounds, five short of the minimum requirement, Doug sits on bench for first tackle football game in 1971 while older brother, Bill, plays QB. At midseason, having reached weight requirement, Doug starts at safety.
First year at quarterback: In 1973, at age 11, Doug finally gets to start at quarterback but soon tires of continually have to use running plays. Asks to be switched to running back.
Move to Massachusetts: In 1975, the Flutie family relocates to Natick, Mass. Doug, now 13, asks his junior high school coach to allow him to call his own plays. Studies Bradshaw, Tarkenton, Staubach and his favourite quarterback, Bert Jones.
High School years: Doug makes Natick varsity as a freshman, playing free safety and wide receiver. As a high school sophomore, he takes over from brother Bill at quarterback. Plays both ways and never leaves the field.
College entrance year, 1981: No NCAA school offers a full-ride scholarship, believing that players who are 5-9, 175 pounds should be kickers, not quarterbacks. Boston College finally offers to take Flutie after its first two high-school QB recruits decide to go elsewhere.
The Hail Mary: On Nov. 22, 1984, the Flutie legend is imprinted on the national consciousness. Down 45-41 to the Miami Hurricanes and with the end zone 48 yards away and no time left on the clock, the little QB wings a 64-yard pass into the twilight and into a mass of players that comes down in the arms of Eagles' WR Gerard Phelan. Throwing 46 passes for 476 yards, three TDs and one miracle, Flutie cements his name as the favourite for the Heisman Trophy. Boston College finishes the season at 10-2 and wins its first bowl game since 1941, a 45-21 over Houston in the Cotton Bowl.
Heisman Trophy: A humanly scaled hero, Rhodes Scholar candidate and distinguished student who wins a National Football Foundation postgraduate scholarship, Flutie is elevated from college football hero to national celebrity by "The Pass." There is little suspense when Flutie is announced as the golden anniversary Heisman winner by the Downtown Athletic Club at the conclusion of an hour-long program televised nationally by NBC. Flutie receives a congratulatory phone call from President Ronald Reagan, whom the quarterback supported for re-election.
Draft year: Unimpressed by Flutie's stature, NFL teams wait until the 11th round of the 1985 draft before the Los Angeles Rams take him with pick No. 285. Flutie decides to sign a six-year, $8.3-million US contract with Donald Trump, owner of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. The USFL folds in 1986, with Flutie as the league's last active player.
NFL beginnings: Flutie signs with the Chicago Bears, halfway through the 1986 season. With starter Jim McMahon and backup Mike Tomczak injured, he starts the last game of the regular season and a first-round loss to Washington. Disliked by McMahon, who derisively refers to him as "America's midget", Flutie crosses NFL strike lines in 1987. Charges of being a scab follow him for the rest of his career.
Unwanted: Traded to New England, Flutie makes only one appearance in his first season with the Patriots. He leads the Pats to six victories in nine starts in 1988 after coming off the bench to spark a comeback win. In 1989, however, Flutie gets only three starts and is released, having completed just 36 of 91 passes.
The Lion King: Tailor-made for the expansive fields of the northern tundra, Flutie is signed by the CFL's B.C. Lions in 1990 and rediscovers his love of the game. The feeling is mutual. More than anyone, he brings the franchise back into prominence and jump-starts ticket sales at B.C. Place based on pure excitement. Given the play-saving luxury of room to roam, Flutie gets time to lob heart-stopping passes to brother Darren, Ray Alexander, Mike Trevathan and Matt Clark.
Rebirth in Canada: Winning his first of six CFL most outstanding player awards, Flutie plays out the 1991 season - and a $350,000 personal services contract with Lions' owner Murray Pezim - in style. Throwing for 6,619 yards, he has the most productive season of any professional quarterback anywhere, ever, before signing a free-agent deal with the Calgary Stampeders.
An Avalanche of Awards: Flutie is the CFL's MOP five more times, starting with Calgary in 1992 and ending with Toronto in 1997. Three times he is named the MVP of the Grey Cup game - in '92 with the Stampeders and again with the Argos, in 1996-97. In eight seasons with B.C., Calgary and Toronto, he plays with the ease and confidence of Joe Montana in a flag football game. His 48 touchdown passes with the Stampeders in 1994 are still a single-season CFL record. "I had more fun playing up there than I ever had playing football anywhere else," says Flutie, after throwing for 41,355 yards and 270 touchdowns. South of the 49th, however, he shows up only occasionally on cable sports highlight packages.
Return to the NFL: After wandering the football hinterlands, Flutie returns to the NFL at age 35 to find that the landscape has changed dramatically. Scrambling, improvisational quarterbacks are in vogue. A decade after McMahon's jibe, "America's midget" signs with the Buffalo Bills as a backup to starter Rob Johnson. After the Bills start the season at 1-3, Flutie takes over, goes 8-3 and leads Buffalo into the playoffs. He is named NFL Comeback Player of the Year and is selected to play in the Pro Bowl.
FLUTIE FLAKES: Doug and wife Laurie start "Dougie's Team" to honour son Doug Jr., who suffers from autism. A portion of the profits from Flutie Flakes are donated to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism, but provoke controversy when Dolphins' coach Jimmy Johnson pours a box on the dressing room floor and tells his players to stomp on them as a motivation tool. Johnson later issues a public apology.
MUSIC MAN: Playing drums, Flutie makes his 1999 release of the Ramblin', Scramblin' Man CD, recorded by his musical group, The Flutie Gang. NFL fans vote his band as the most musically accomplished on an ABC Monday Night Football special feature, "Monday Night at the MIC."
CHARGER MENTOR: The perennial underdog, Flutie is still battling for the No. 1 job as a 39-year-old challenger to Drew Brees after he signs with the San Diego Chargers in 2001. He turns 40 in his second season with San Diego. In 2003, he becomes the oldest player to score two rushing touchdowns in an NFL game.
THE HOMECOMING: After four seasons in San Diego, Flutie's career comes down to two options in the summer of '04 - retire or join the Patriots as a backup to Tom Brady. A lifelong Red Sox fan, Doug arranges with the ball club to catch batting practice home runs atop the Green Monster at Fenway. In February '05, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats seek to re-unite Doug and Darren Flutie, who last played together, for the Lions, in 1991, but the Patriots keep Doug in New England.
HISTORIC KICK: In the Patriots' regular season finale against the Dolphins on Jan. 1, 2006, Flutie successfully drop kicks the football for an extra point, something that had not been done in an NFL game since 1941. The Pro Football Hall of Fame calls the next day, seeking the ball for enshrinement. The fan who has it asks the Patriots for $100,000 plus a guarantee of eight seasons tickets for 25 years. The get-rich kick scheme fails when owner Bob Kraft rejects it.
FINAL BLAST: Doug makes his last NFL appearance in February 2006, playing with The Flutie Gang in bars and drinking holes around the Detroit-Windsor area during Super Bowl XL.