Flutie Is Gaining Respect as Bears Quarterback

now it should be obvious that in the hysterical career of Doug Flutie, things do not happen in the usual ways. The 1984 Heisman Trophy winner has come through the marshes of New Jersey to become a quarterback for the Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears, and destiny’s tot is still just 5-8 and maybe three quarters of an inch more in his cleats while standing on a hardwood floor.

The extraordinary circumstances of Flutie’s arrival with the Bears--and his role as starting quarterback when they meet the Washington Redskins Saturday at Soldier Field in the NFC semifinals--are not necessarily pleasant ones. But as usual they are startling, for it seems that wherever he turns up, leagues fold, trades are made and havoc is wreaked.

“If you had told me this would happen, I’d say you were crazy,” he said, with the Bears assembled at their playoff training base in nearby Suwanee, Ga. “I was planning on sitting the year out. No one could have predicted the things that have happened in the last two months.”

The last time Flutie was heard from, he was a million-dollar rookie with the New Jersey Generals of the U.S. Football League who played with nerve until breaking his collarbone. The memory of the NCAA’s all-time leading passer out of Boston College faded, save for an occasional television appearance. His NFL rights were acquired by the Bears from the Rams in what was an unpopular move among some team members in Chicago. Then Super Bowl quarterback Jim McMahon aggravated a shoulder injury Nov. 23 and was lost for the season.

So once again, Flutie is reading unfamiliar plays off his wristband and smiling gamely. He calls the play left when it is supposed to go right, then gets the ball there, anyway. Plays bust, patterns break, front lines collapse, and out of havoc Flutie creates art.

“When something goes wrong, most guys throw the ball out of bounds,” Flutie said. “I don’t think the play should end there . . . It’s certainly not in my mind that they’re 100 pounds heavier or six inches taller than me.”

Flutie is starting over two more conventional and experienced players, Mike Tomczak and Steve Fuller. He has appeared in just four games, starting one, and his presence has sorely tried the Bears’ loyalty to the other quarterbacks.

But Flutie has an irrepressible manner, and the sort of open face that is hard to dislike. “Eyes like a deer,” Coach Mike Ditka says. He has also proved to be a quick study, and Ditka is obviously partial to him, to the point that the sultan of scream has trouble yelling at his protege’.

“It’s just like hollering at Bambi,” Ditka said. “I get letters from schoolteachers all over the country not to do it.”

If Ditka does not criticize Flutie, it is because he knows what his quarterback has been through. When Flutie was signed on Oct. 21, McMahon questioned management’s loyalty to the current roster, since it was evident that one of the four quarterbacks would have to go by next season. When Flutie began to play on Nov. 9, the Bears were already a team suffering from post-Super Bowl pressure, injuries and bickering.

“At first it was a tricky situation,” Flutie said. “I didn’t know what the guys were thinking. It was real quiet. No one was disrespectful or wise or anything. Just real quiet.”

But Flutie dealt with the problem good-naturedly, doing things like taking film home with him on Christmas Eve, which endeared him to Ditka. He has gained allies such as Willie Gault and Walter Payton because, unlike many of the Bears, he never says anything offensive.

“When he first came in, he was very likable,” receiver Gault said. “He doesn’t say anything bad and he doesn’t do anything bad.”

McMahon said on the “Tonight” show recently that Flutie’s inexperience would show in the playoffs, and the Bears would have to go with Fuller. Flutie did not take offense.

“He may be right, he may be wrong,” Flutie said. “He’s just stating his point of view, I guess. Everybody tries to make more out of this than there is. People start raising questions about Jim and me and how we get along. But like Jim also said, we just don’t know each other.”

McMahon also has said he doesn’t expect to have to compete with Flutie for his starting job next season. On that, Flutie does not give in.

“I’d like to think I can compete with him,” Flutie said. “I’m hoping by next year I’ll have everything under control.”

The Bears are winning with Flutie. In four games, he has completed 23 of 46 passes for 209 yards and 3 touchdowns, and run for a total of 39 yards and a touchdown.

Flutie responded to his first NFL start, against Dallas in the final game, with touchdown passes of 58 and 33 yards. It was only the second time this year a Bears quarterback threw two or more in a game.

But Flutie also has had some problems, and the Bears have had trouble adjusting to his cadence and out-of-the-pocket style.

But his enthusiasm seems to add something to a team that may be somewhat jaded by its 18-1 Super Bowl season and 14-2 cruise through the league’s easiest 1986 schedule. He devours the game plans Ditka throws at him and runs huddles like a high school quarterback making his first start.

“Doug has a good grasp, good control,” Payton said. “The only thing he has to watch is when he calls the plays. Sometimes he goes too fast and we don’t get it. I tell him, ‘Slow down, calm down.’ ”

For now, the Bears seem to have settled into a routine with Flutie. Any more controversy over him vis-a-vis McMahon has seemingly been put on hold until the off-season.

“That’s what we’ll go with, and we’ll make it work,” fullback Matt Suhey said. “We’ve got to because we don’t have a choice. Doug’s a player. He made a lot of things work when they went wrong.”