Canadian Football League Career
Flutie played in Canadian Football League for 8 years. He is revered as one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play Canadian football. In 1990 he signed with the BC Lions for a two-year contract reportedly worth $350,000 a season. At the time he was the highest paid player in the CFL. Flutie struggled in his first season, which would be his only losing season in the CFL. Over the next seven years he would go 99-27 as a starter. In his second season, he threw for a record 6,619 yards on 466 completions. Flutie was rewarded with a reported million-dollar salary with the Calgary Stampeders.
Flutie won his first Grey Cup in 1992 with the Stampeders. He was named the Grey Cup MVP.
During his last years in Calgary, Flutie's backup was Jeff Garcia, who later went on to start for the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. Flutie won two more Grey Cups with the Toronto Argonauts, in 1996 (The Snow Bowl) and 1997, before signing with the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in 1998. Prior to his final two Grey Cup victories with the Argonauts, Flutie was hampered by the opinion, supported by the media, that he was a quarterback who could not win in cold weather. In both 1993 and 1994, the Stampeders had the best record in the league, but lost the Western Final each year at home in freezing conditions. After first refusing to wear gloves in freezing temperatures, in later years Flutie adapted to throwing with gloves in cold weather.
His career CFL statistics include 41,355 passing yards and 270 touchdowns. He holds the professional football record of 6,619 yards passing in a single season. He still holds four of the CFL's top five highest single-season completion marks, including a record 466 in 1991. His 48 touchdown passes in 1994 remains a CFL record. He earned three Grey Cup MVP awards, and was named the CFL's Most Outstanding Player a record six times (1991–1994, and 1996–1997).
On November 17, 2006, Flutie was named the greatest Canadian Football League player of all time from a top 50 list of CFL players conducted by TSN. In 2007 he was named to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, the first non-Canadian to be inducted.
Read more about this topic: Doug Flutie
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