Flutie: football’s most admirable player

It is one of Quillnews’ favorite family memories; and the venue was sports. In the spring of ’87, my father was on his final multi-day visit to the Quillnews home to see son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and grandson; and, not incidentally, further fence mending owing to circumstances which were common, but not important here. Visits like this, which had taken place over the recent years, were made more intense for an estrangement they were successfully ending. As it happened this visit in ’87 was his last; he passed away the next year. 

During this particular visit, the Quillnews family assembled with scores of others at the neighborhood Little League Park to watch a game of baseball, in which your editor’s son would play.  My father watched intensely and with passion as his grandson got 3 hits, and fielded flawlessly through seven innings for a team win. But it was in the bottom of the fourth that all attending that game that bright spring day were given a rare treat. There were no outs and two on base: first and second. My son, Micah, was playing second. The batter had taken the count to 2-1, and swung on the next pitch. The ball popped to Micah, who caught the ball for the first out. In a motion, as second baseman, he noticed the second base runner was still off base. He stepped on second for the second out. With the team and coaches shouting instructions, and the assembled spectators cheering, Micah turned in one motion and threw the ball to first to catch the baserunner off base for the third and final out. Triple play!

My father jumped off his folding chair and cheered through the wire fence of the back stop as the team came in for their ups. In seconds, he was reenacting the play with the other spectators, laughing and shouting with glee. He shouted to his grandson, “way to go boy, way to go!” He turned to me and exclaimed: “In all my near 80 years I’ve never seen that. A triple play! What a treat! I never thought I would see such a play. I tell you – that is even better than the pass from Flutie to Phelan…” High praise indeed; a cherished memory for three generations: grandfather to son to grandson.

That memory came to mind Saturday when the 12-4 San Diego Chargers lost a heartbreaker to the 10-6 Jets in the AFC Wild Card I game 20-17. With seconds left in the first OT period, Chargers rookie kicker Kaeding shanked wide right a field goal try from the 40 (killing a sure victory), giving Jets’ 11 year vet kicker Brien the chance to make good a 28 yard kick on the next series of plays for the Jets playoff win. Standing in Charger’s uniform #7 on the sidelines throughout the game was Doug Flutie, 42, the back up QB.

Was this Flutie’s final game? If so, this would end the career of the single most admirable football player of this generation, and the object of admiration of millions including Quillnews’ father, who admired Flutie’s fight, ingenuity, skill, grace and his uncanny ability to win. Maybe others in the NFL got more headlines or starts, but no one played with more excitement or heart. Flutie’s official NFL player stat sheet for his 11 years in the league leaves out lots; including the episode that made my  father and so many others rank this player as a participant in the most incredible sports event he had ever witnessed.   

In 1984, while knitting together a 10-2 season with Boston College, Flutie’s football magic emerged November 22nd, when his team won one of college football's greatest games.  It was the day after Thanksgiving; and my father, like millions of TV viewers, watched Miami score 45 points and what appeared to be the game-winning run with 28 seconds to play. Then Flutie magic happened. With the score Miami 45 vs. Boston C. 41, Flutie on the game’s final play took the ball from scrimmage on the Miami 48, dropped back to his own 37 and let fly what would be a 63+ yard Hail Mary toss to receiver and best pal, Gerald Phelan, who was waiting in the end zone. Phelan caught the ball, BC won the game, and Flutie won the Heisman Trophy. Fans throughout New  England and the country glowed for months. Flutie began professional football with the New Jersey Generals in ’85; when the USFL folded, he went to the Bears of the NFL where Ditka gave him a shot but little playing time. Hotshot starter QB Jim McMahon called Flutie “bambi.” Flutie moved to the Patriots, where he may have been New England fans’ favorite son but where coaches gave him little chance.   

At the time, I was working as an oil company soldier and had, like most NFL fans, lost track of Flutie’s plight. In 1992, after a routine look-see of emergency preparedness and external programs at a gas-desulphurization plant in Harmattan, outside of Calgary, Alberta, I visited with a Calgary colleague over dinner. The conversation migrated turned to sports.  My colleague said: “we have this terrific guy for the Stamps this season from British Columbia. He’s going to be a star.” I asked a few questions about this player’s background, and was assured that he was a Canadian who had just brought a house in Calgary and had a wonderful family. His name: Doug Flutie. Your editor was obliged to delicately inform his proud Canadian friend that indeed Flutie was a star, but he was also an American, a pretty well known one at that.   

These cross-cultural communications accomplished, your editor learned that Flutie signed in ’90 with the BC Lions, since his professional football career on the US side of the football border was going nowhere. He had spent two years learning the Canadian version of the game, and then signed a huge contract with the Calgary Stampeders. Your editor’s colleague had been right about Flutie’s prospects in Calgary: he led the team a CFL Grey Cup victory in 1992.   Flutie would later go as the CFL’s highest paid player to the Toronto Argonauts, where he led that team to two Grey Cup victories. After Flutie’s eight year career in the CFL, he was not only wildly popular with Canadians, his stats ranked him as the greatest quarterback in Canadian history. In all, his CFL stats include 41,355 passing yards, 270 touchdowns in 8 seasons; six Grey Cup victories, and three Grey Cup MVPs. He holds the professional football record with 6,619 yards passing in a single season.   

Flutie returned to the NFL in 1998, signing as a back up QB with the Bills. After a 1-3 record with the starter, Bills brass moved Flutie in and Flutie began a year few dreamed possible: leading the team 8-3 finish and his nod to the 1998 Pro Bowl. After leading the Bills to a 10-5 record in 1999, Flutie was benched in the final game by coach Wade Phillips who believed that the recovered starter deserved a chance. I count this as the single biggest betrayal of a player in decades – made particularly poignant because of Flutie’s history in the NFL and also his record of wins. Indeed, the Bills lost the game 22-16, finishing its season.

In 2000, Flutie was Bills backup, and only would play late in games. When the Bills’ starter was injured again, Flutie got another round of starts and victories. When the starter recovered, Flutie was benched again, getting a chance to play only in the last game of the season, his last game as a Bill, in which he threw 20 of 25 passes for 366 yards, and 3 TDs; according to NFL quarterback ranking system Flutie played a perfect game.  Flutie moved to San Diego in ’01 where he has played mostly as a back up ever since; but still providing flash when he played. Others would come in, Michael Vick, Drew Brees, perhaps Eli Manning; Flutie refused to retire, taking pay cuts to the NFL equivalent of minimum wage to keep playing.  Flutie was a back up this year to Brees, who engineered a remarkable comeback season of his own this year. Coach Shottenheimer let Flutie start for the final game of the Chargers’ season; Flutie threw one TD and ran for another before being pulled to let another backup play. This is how one of football’s best sportsman plays the game.