Doug Flutie: Prelude to super stardom

Doug Flutie playing quarterback with Boston College in the early '80s. He would go on to a hall of fame career in the CFL and a solid NFL career.

Source: https://www.profootballhof.com/news/doug-flutie-from-magic-to-mentor

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From the minute he saw the miraculous hail mary pass that put him on the national stage, a friend of mine said he would be perfect for the CFL.

Yet, it would take him the rest of the decade before he found his way north of the border.

After college, he would have an up and down experience in two leagues.

Such was the first chapter in the career of Doug Flutie.

Heisman hero
The only information I got on college football was from the news, the odd sports magazine or newspaper and, when I got to high school, my good friend Chris Vining.

It was the Fall of Grade 10 when I heard about the miracle pass. It was on all the sports channels. Doug Flutie, the quarterback for Boston College, had thrown a bomb on the last play of the game. His receiver hauled it in for the winning touchdown to beat the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes.

A few weeks later, he won the Heisman Trophy as the best player in college football.

The media made it seem as if that hail mary pass was the reason he won the Heisman, but that wasn’t the case. Flutie himself has said since, that voting was done before that game. Beyond that, he had the numbers to back him up. When he graduated he was all the all-time leading college passer with 10,579 yards, and was a unanimous All-American his senior year.

The Boston College Eagles were invited to the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day 1985, and that’s the first time I saw Doug Flutie play because CBC aired it on peasant vision. They played the Houston Cougars, and won by a score of 45-28.

I watched the first few minutes, and thought Flutie looked small, but boy could he throw the ball.

That was the first year Channel 13 on the peasant vision dial carried the Fiesta Bowl. The Miami Hurricanes were playing UCLA. Back then I actually liked the Hurricanes because of their quarterback Bernie Kosar, who is still one of my all-time favourites.

Consequently, I tuned in to the Fiesta Bowl, periodically flipping back to the Cotton Bowl during commercials.

Turning pro
The question then was, is Doug Flutie too small for the NFL? As I said, I had a friend who said he was perfect for the CFL, but that was not meant to be – yet.

He signed with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League in February of 1985, months before the NFL draft. Because he did that, we will never know where he really would have gone in the NFL draft. Instead, the Los Angeles Rams took him in the 11th round, 285th overall.

Flutie became the third straight Heisman Trophy winner to sign with the USFL, after Herschel Walker in 1983, and Mike Rozier in 1984.

Flutie would play 15 of the 18 games in the 1985 season, leading the team to an 11-7 record and second place in the Eastern Conference. They would play the Baltimore Stars in the first round of the playoffs, losing by a score of 20-17. Flutie finished the season going 134 of 281 for 2,109 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. He also rushed for 465 yards and six touchdowns on 65 carries, for an average of 7.2 yards.

The USFL folded after the 1985, so Doug Flutie was on the move again.

The Windy City
The Los Angeles Rams still held Flutie’s rights, but traded them to the Chicago Bears. They were the defending Super Bowl champions, and needed a quarterback after their starter, and Super Bowl quarterback, Jim McMahon went down with a season-ending injury late in the season.

He played in four games for the Bears, starting one game and winning it. He completed 23 of 46 passes for 361 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also rushed for 36 yards and one touchdown on nine carries.

The Bears made it to the NFC Divisional Game, where Flutie started, and lost to Washington.

Patriot games
Flutie would appear in one game for the Bears in the strike-shortened 1987 season, before Chicago traded him to the New England Patriots.

He appeared in one game for New England, starting and winning it, while going 15 of 25 for 199 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He also rushed for 43 yards on six carries.

Interestingly, that one start for the Patriots was when he crossed the picket line.

In 1988, the Patriots started 1-3, when Flutie came off the bench to lead New England to a come-from-behind win over my beloved Indianapolis Colts. He then went 6-3 as a starter and the Patriots were on the verge of making the playoffs, when Flutie was unexpectedly replaced by Tony Eason in the team’s regular season finale. New England lost that game and missed the playoffs.

He finished the 1988 season going 92 of 179 for 1,150 yards, eight touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He rushed for 179 yards and a touchdown on 38 carries.

Flutie was back on the bench for the 1989 season, appearing in five games, starting three, winning one and losing two. He went 36 of 91 for 493 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. He also rushed for 87 yards on 16 carries.

It was around this time that Chris Vining’s brother sent him a present. They were originally from New England, Maine to be exact. So Kevin sent Chris a Patriots shirt, which he wore proudly. In fact, back then Vining’s favourite teams were the Bears and the Patriots – coincidentally the NFL teams Doug Flutie had played for.

However, after the 1989 season, the Patriots released Flutie. No other NFL team showed any interest and, as the decade ended, it appeared his career was nearing its end.

Boy was that wrong.

The years after
Doug Flutie would come north to the CFL, playing two years with B.C, four years with Calgary, and two more with Toronto. He would win three Grey Cups, an incredible six most valuable player awards in eight seasons, and re-write the record book. He still holds the professional football record for most passing yards in a season with 6,619 and the CFL single season record of 48 touchdown passes. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall Of Fame in 2008.

He would also return to the NFL where he was productive in eight seasons with Buffalo, San Diego, and New England.

Parting thoughts
The CFL was always a second chance for American quarterbacks battling perception and preconceived notions. The worst example was the Black quarterback, and how they escaped discrimination and found a second chance in Canada.

Doug Flutie battled preconceived notions of another sort. He was labeled too small to play in the NFL. Even when he had success, it meant nothing and he would be replaced for no good reason in New England. That same thing would happen to him again a decade later in Buffalo. Fittingly, it served both teams right because they lost those games Flutie may well have won for them.

But that didn’t matter. When he came to Canada, he found a game perfectly suited to his skill set and he became a star. In polls of all-time greatest players, which are subjective at best, Flutie has come out on top.

His play was electrifying, innovative and unpredictable. He was so fun to watch.

It would take him awhile, including spending the 1980s in football purgatory, but Doug Flutie became one of the greats.