Doug Flutie

Did You Know?

• Flutie was born in Manchester, Maryland, and his paternal great-grandparents were Lebanese immigrants.
• He holds the professional football record of 6,619 passing yards in a single season.
• He is the oldest NFL player to score two rushing touchdowns in a game.

College career

Flutie played football at Boston College, the only Division I-A school to recruit him, from 1981 to 1984. In his senior year he won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, and the Davey O'Brien Award, becoming the first quarterback to win the Heisman since Pat Sullivan in 1971. He left as the NCAA's all-time passing yardage leader with 10,579 yards and was a unanimous All-American. He earned Player of the Year awards from UPI, Kodak, The Sporting News, and the Maxwell Football Club.

Tom Coughlin was the quarterback coach for Boston College from 1981 to 1983. Flutie gained national attention in 1984 when he led the Eagles to a 47–45 victory over the Miami Hurricanes in a nationally televised game the day after Thanksgiving. With six seconds remaining, he scrambled and threw a Hail Mary pass caught in the end zone by his college roommate, Gerard Phelan. Flutie led the nation in passer rating and won the Heisman a week later, though voting had finished before the game; Flutie said that without the Hail Mary he could have been easily forgotten.

The subsequent rise in applications to Boston College became known as the Flutie effect. Flutie maintained a distinguished academic record, majoring in communication and computer science, and was a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship in 1984. He won the National Football Foundation post-graduate scholarship. In November 2008, Boston College honored him with a statue outside Alumni Stadium depicting his Hail Mary pass; his number 22 has been retired. In 2013, he received the College Football Legacy Award from The Sports Museum at TD Garden.

Professional career

Despite his college achievements, some considered Flutie too small to play professional football. He was attractive to the USFL, which was in financial difficulty and desperate for a star. The Buffalo Bills, holding the first pick in the 1985 NFL draft, had concerns about his height and still held the rights to Jim Kelly. Flutie was selected by the USFL's New Jersey Generals in the 1985 territorial draft in January, and signed a five-year, $7 million deal on February 4, 1985, making him the highest paid pro football player and highest paid rookie in any sport.

Having already signed with the USFL, he was not selected in the NFL draft until the 11th round, 285th overall, by the Los Angeles Rams—the lowest drafting of a Heisman winner. In his USFL debut, his first two professional passes were intercepted; he completed 7 of 18 passes for 174 yards and ran for 51 yards. For the 1985 season, he completed 134 of 281 passes for 2,109 yards and 13 touchdowns in 15 games. The Generals finished 11–7, second in the Eastern Conference.

After the USFL folded in 1986, Flutie spent his first four NFL seasons with the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots. He left the NFL in 1990 for the CFL, where he became regarded as one of the league's greatest players. With the BC Lions, Calgary Stampeders, and Toronto Argonauts, he was named CFL Most Outstanding Player a record six times and won three Grey Cups, being named Grey Cup MVP in all three. He returned to the NFL in 1998 with the Buffalo Bills, earning Pro Bowl and NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors.

He led the Bills to the playoffs again the following season but was controversially benched in their Wild Card defeat. He was the last quarterback to lead the Bills to the playoffs for 17 years. His last starting role was with the San Diego Chargers in 2001, and he spent his final season in 2005 as a backup for the Patriots. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.

Other post-career endeavors

In 2011, Flutie signed a deal to endorse joint support supplement Instaflex. On March 8, 2016, he was announced as a celebrity competitor on season 22 of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they were eliminated on April 25, finishing in ninth place. On November 20, 2018, a partnership deal was announced between Flutie and the Maximum Football video game, with future iterations rebranded as Doug Flutie's Maximum Football featuring his likeness; the game released on PS4 and Xbox One in fall 2019, and a physical copy became available on February 4, 2020.

Since 2021, he has endorsed testosterone supplement Nugenix; he and fellow pitchman Frank Thomas were spoofed in a Saturday Night Live skit. On July 6, 2025, Flutie played a game for the Savannah Bananas at Fenway Park, starting as pitcher, throwing eight pitches and recording one out. On August 12, 2025, he signed with the Brockton Rox baseball team; during a charity event on August 21, he came out of the bullpen in the first inning against the Québec Capitales, throwing seven pitches (five strikes), allowing an infield single, and retiring his final batter on a grounder to third base.

Flutie made his acting debut in 2002 on the television show Arliss, playing himself. In 2005, he appeared as himself on the sitcom Listen Up. In 2002, he appeared in the direct-to-TV film Second String, about the Buffalo Bills. He has made numerous guest appearances on shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, Wicked Bites, and Good Morning America.

Personal life

Doug Flutie is the second son of Richard and Joan Flutie. He has an older brother, Bill, an older sister, Denise, and a younger brother, Darren, who ranks fourth all-time in receptions in the CFL. His nephew Billy, Bill's son, played wide receiver and punter at Boston College from 2007 to 2010, and another nephew, Troy, Darren's son, played quarterback and wide receiver there from 2015 to 2017. Flutie married his high school sweetheart, Laurie Fortier.

They have a daughter, Alexa, who cheered for both the New England Patriots and San Diego Chargers, and a son, Doug Jr., who has childhood disintegrative disorder, a rare and severe late-onset form of autism. The family started the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism in his honor. Flutie created a cereal called Flutie Flakes, with proceeds supporting the foundation, and he organizes an annual 5k race in Natick that benefits over 30 autism-focused organizations in New England.

In 2006, the city of Boston gave him the Red, White & Blue Award for his community support, and in 2010 he was named Central Florida Humanitarian of the Year. In his spare time, he attends Boston College football and basketball games and was a season ticket-holder. He spends summers in Bethany Beach, Delaware, and winters in Melbourne Beach, Florida, where a sports field complex bears his name. He has worked with Eastern Bank and served as a spokesman for Metrowest Medical Center.

He is a member of the Longfellow Sports Clubs in Wayland and Natick. Though he moved from Natick to Florida, he was inducted into the Natick High School Wall of Achievement in November 2007. A short road connecting the Natick Mall and Shoppers World is called Flutie Pass, named for his famous 1984 play against Miami. He was once part-owner of a restaurant called Flutie's in New York City's South Street Seaport.