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New England's own Doug Flutie has announced the end of a professional football career that spanned 21 years. Flutie, the 43-year-old former Heisman Trophy winner from Boston College, had spent the offseason deciding whether to come back for one more season as Tom Brady's backup quarterback. Instead, he said he will begin a second career as a college football commentator on ABC and ESPN.
Born in Maryland, Flutie moved to Natick, Mass., when he was 6 years old. He retires as one of the best-loved sports figures in the region. His Hail Mary touchdown pass that gave Boston College an improbable Black Friday victory over Miami in 1984 remains one of the most iconic plays in football history.
At a news conference today at Gillette Stadium to announce Flutie's retirement, Patriots chairman Robert Kraft lauded Flutie's work raising money for autism research, a cause Flutie took up in honor of his son, Doug Jr., who has autism. Kraft announced a $22,000 gift to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation -- an amount picked because Flutie wore number 22 in college.
Flutie said he always looked at the sport as fun. "I just love playing football," Flutie said. "I love competing, I enjoy playing and it's still a game to me." Flutie later added that he is still a "big kid."
Although he was a college superstar, Flutie was dismissed by some in the NFL because of his relatively small stature; he stands 5 feet 9 inches tall. Flutie started his pro career with the New Jersey Generals of the now-defunct United States Football League. He entered the NFL in 1986 as a backup with the Chicago Bears. The following year, he joined the Patriots, where he played for three seasons, appearing in 11 games in 1988. But after sitting most of the next season, Flutie left for the Canadian Football League, where he was Most Outstanding Player for six seasons.
Flutie's NFL career took off when he returned, a decade later, to play for the Buffalo Bills. Flutie thrilled Buffalo fans for three years with his exciting style of play, before being bumped for the starting job by the Rob Johnson. The next stop for Flutie was San Diego, where he played for four years, seeing gradually less playing time with the emergence of young quarterback Drew Brees. Flutie returned to New England last year to serve as Brady's backup. He saw little game action, but he did give fans an enduring memory when he dropped-kicked home an extra point during a game at Gillette Stadium against the Miami Dolphins.
Flutie appeared in 91 NFL games, completing 1,177 of 2,151 passes for 14,715 yards, with 86 touchdowns and 68 interceptions. His best season came in 1998 with Buffalo, when he threw a career-high 20 touchdowns and led the Bills to the playoffs.
