The Flutie Festival Comes to Plymouth State

I got to interview former Boston College, and New England Patriots quarterback Doug Flutie on November 20th. I wasn't really too sure what to expect, but I quickly learned that Flutie, along with his wife, Laurie are great people that dedicate a lot of time not only to their son, Dougie (who has autism), but to other families in New England who have a family member that has been diagnosed with autism. Upon having this interview with Doug, I talked to Laurie while Doug was signing autographs, and participating in the flag football games (for the record, Flutie still has some mustard on those passes). I learned something interesting things about Doug while I was talking with Laurie (like Doug does yoga every day, and that he is competitive with everything), but one thing is quite evident. This family is dedicated to what they do, and I hope that this interview allows you to realize this, because I definitely did.

D.F. is Doug Flutie

E.B. is Eric Brill

L.F.- is Laurie Flutie

E.B.- So you play football I heard?

D.F.- A little bit, I use to. I'm still just a big kid still having fun throwing the ball, you know? Very rarely do I throw the football around now, but I love it. My nephew plays with a group of guys every Sunday morning, like once every two or three months, but that is about it with football. Otherwise, I am running around playing basketball, or baseball, or something else.

E.B.- Yea, you can't not do anything in a sense.

D.F.- Right.

E.B.- So, you faced a lot of adversity as far as people saying that you were too short, or too small to play the game, and you obviously overcame that. Your son is facing adversity as far as having Autism. Can you kind of relate to him in a sense?

D.F.- Yea, I mean we all have got challenges in one respect or another. The thing I love about Dougie's situation is the expectations from others aren't there; he doesn't have to live up to everyone's expectations. He goes at his own pace, and we want the most for him. We have put him in programs, whether it is just schooling, or camps, or horseback riding. He's got a few little earned skills that he has picked up, and we just measure things differently. Every little stride that he makes is a big deal to us, you know? Everything is relative.

E.B.- Does Dougie look at sports as far as like a connection to people?

D.F.- He is not really advanced enough to really realize that, he just knows what he enjoys, and what he doesn't enjoy. He loves the horseback riding when Laurie (Doug's wife) takes him, and his face lights up. The second he realizes where he is going, or what he is doing, we'll talk about going on the trail walking or trotting (with the horses), he will come back and he is sitting backwards on the horse. There is a water sport camp that he does that is the same kind of principle. He starts doing these things that you aren't sure that he is capable of, and you are a little bit nervous as a parent putting him into that situation, and all of a sudden, he's just got a smile on his face that is a mile wide.

E.B.- Why do you think that, because if you see that most children that are autistic, they seem like they make a connection specifically with horseback riding?

D.F.- It is something with animals, I don't know what it is, but I remember when we were in Disney in the Epcot Center aquarium, and we were all staring into the actual aquarium, and a dolphin came over. There were hundreds of kids, pinned to the glass, three-deep, and Dougie was up near the glass, just kind of looking, and this darn dolphin came right over to that spot that he (Dougie) was at. He lit up, and got all excited, and all of that, and the thing turned around and went away, wheeled around and came back to him again. So, there was some kind of connection there, I just can't explain it.

E.B.- How long ago was that?

L.F.- That was a while ago, maybe ten years ago.

D.F.- He was little.

E.B.- What made you decide to start the foundation as oppose to joining another one, and just make an appearance?

D.F.- Dougie was diagnosed at the age of three, I had just signed with Buffalo. Jim Kelly (another one of Buffalo's quarterbacks at the time) had just started a foundation for his son, called Henry's Hope, and it kind of gave me an idea to do it. Once Dougie had been diagnosed, we were like, maybe he was given to us for a reason, and we were in position to make a difference, so we decided to start the foundation, and we did that. A few years back, Autism Speaks started up, and there was an idea that everybody would come together for one big foundation for autism, and it would keep moving forward, which was a great idea, because you consolidate and bring in thoughts, and everybody works in the same direction. We kind of balked out of it a little bit, and all of the major autism foundations jumped on-board with them. The problem is that they took total control, and now everyone else is left hanging, and we had no control over where the funds go, what direction its going to go, and things like that. We, in hindsight, were very happy that we stayed independent, and decided that we would do what we do. We focus on families and services for families rather then towards research, which is their primary concern. We feel like we don't bring in quite enough to really make a huge difference in research funds.

E.B.- Do you find that a lot of people, as far as with the families, coming to you, more to kind of bring them together?

D.F.- I think so. We have a seminar every year, and it is definitely more family orientated.  All that we gear it towards is to home schooling, or starting up new schools, or computers in the home, or toys for the kids, camps. It is all geared towards that. It really take a lot of the stress off of the people, because number one, financially and number two from a time commitment as a parent, and with all of the travel that I do, and the way that I work, a lot of it falls on to Laurie in our situation. For the parents, to be able to take their child and have them in a camp for a week, or a couple of hours, it makes a big difference in their world.

E.B.- And even as far as seeing the smile on everyone's faces when they have the camp

D.F.- Yup.

E.B.- So I guess I am going to go to a football perspective now. I see that with all of the autographs you have done so far, you sign all of them with the number 22, your Boston College number, as oppose to the 7, which was your Buffalo and San Diego number.

D.F.- You know, it is all dependent. One NFL ball was for somebody specific, so I wrote the number two because I figured that they were a Patriots' fan. There was a Buffalo Bills helmet, so number seven. The balls were kind of generic footballs, so I signed them 22, because I am on a college campus and maybe it is the college thing. It is really arbitrary. I don't know whether if I should wear Patriots' stuff, or B.C. (Boston College) stuff.

E.B.- You should come up here with Bills' stuff. Where did you come up, you see with the highlights, you have the B.C.-Miami game, the comeback against Jacksonville, and you see the ones with the jump throw in there. What made you come up with the idea of that?

D.F.- I have always reacted to the situation. I mean if you go back, and watch the film from me in the course of a game, there are a couple of throws were I am falling off of my back foot and throwing the ball up here (Flutie's hand went straight into the air). There are a couple were I dip down and I throw it to a gap between people, and it is whatever the situation called for.  The jump pass, once specifically, we were playing Minnesota, I was with San Diego. I am holding the ball to my right, and a guy is coming at me, and another guy was chasing me. Usually, I would like to throw that side-arm, but there is no way that I could have thrown it side-arm. So I put my foot into the ground, and I jumped up over the guy, because it was a 10-yard cross pattern, jumped up so I can see, and I could throw down to the receiver, and it was just that the situation called for it. There was one, it was my favorite jump pass, we were playing the Jets in New York, and Peerless Price, I was at about the 10-yard line, and I am rolling towards the sideline, he is in the corner of the end-zone, and he broke to the sideline and there was a guy coming at me, and I jumped to throw it at the sideline, and a defensive back broke under him. I went and I held it, and he (Peerless Price) he started back the other way, so in the air, it was like a double-clutch, and I went hear (as if he was throwing it), and in the air I turned and then threw back to the inside, and he went behind he caught it, easy touchdown. It was my all-time favorite, absolutely.

E.B.- Do you get, I wouldn't say annoyed, but for lack of a better word, annoyed, as far as that your career highlight was that B.C.-Miami game, and they don't necessarily look at your CFL career, for instance?

D.F.- Everyone, and say this all of the time, you would love for people to remember all that you accomplished, and all that you did, and that is just not going to happen. But, at least I do have that moment where people remember, because most guys get forgotten, so no it does not bother me. What bothers me about it, the only thing that bothers me about it is, it made people think that I had won the Heisman strictly because of that pass, when basically, it was pretty much wrapped up before that even happened. That is the only part with that. It is kind of cool because I have a couple of signature plays. I have that, and at the end of my career, I had the dropkick, and that kind of bookended my career with a couple of plays that people remember

E.B.- Which one do you look at as far as enjoying more between the two?

D.F.- Now, the dropkick. More then anything, it is because the Hail Mary is kind of old to me now. It gave people something else to get excited about for a while, but now that has died down, and it is still the Hail Mary.