Flutie Adds One More Star to Crown : Canadian football: He passes for 480 yards in 24-10 victory over Winnipeg for Grey Cup title.

Well, the CFL can rightly be renamed the Canadian Flutie League after the Calgary Stampeders defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 24-10, on Sunday in the Grey Cup at SkyDome.

Calgary quarterback Doug Flutie, who created his own legend at Boston College, made a mockery of Winnipeg’s blitzing defense. He threw for 480 yards and two touchdowns, completing 33 of 49 passes.

One touchdown pass was for 35 yards to Dave Sapunjis in the first quarter, and the other was a 15-yard pass to Allen Pitts in the fourth.

The Stampeders dominated from the opening quarter and rolled up a 17-0 lead at halftime.

Only Montreal’s Sam Etcheverry, who passed for 508 yards in the 1955 game against Edmonton, had thrown for more yardage in a Grey Cup game.

The CFL has turned out to be a perfect haven for Flutie, 30. Rejected by the NFL because he is only 5 feet 10, Flutie found professional success north of the border, first with the B.C. Lions and then this season with the Stampeders.

The wider CFL field was a perfect fit for a scrambling, mobile quarterback who could improvise under pressure.

The climate-controlled environment of SkyDome helped tilt the game in Flutie’s favor. Calgary had lost to Winnipeg, 17-16, outdoors in cold, blustery weather.

“It was the weather that beat us there last time,” linebacker Matt Finlay said. “Doug was not going to lose to them indoors.”

Said Wally Buono, Calgary’s general manager and coach: “In a game like this today, he was like a surgeon and he just destroys you.”

For all of Flutie’s previous victories, there was a sense that he still had something to prove. He hadn’t been able to reach the Grey Cup with the Lions in two previous attempts, even though he passed for more than 6,619 yards last season in British Columbia.

“It’s not a monkey off my back, but it’s a real big relief,” he said. “Championships--that’s what you’re shooting for all season. And unless you win the championship, you don’t enjoy the off-season. It’s the only way you can go home.”

Because the struggling league might attempt to expand to the United States, Flutie is viewed as a savior. There was a decided lack of excitement in Toronto for this Grey Cup, and even with an attractive quarterback matchup (Flutie-Matt Dunigan), only 45,863 showed up, well short of the SkyDome’s capacity of 54,000 for football.

Flutie carries his responsibility with ease, however. And he is aware that he will probably be accorded hero’s status in Calgary. The Stampeders hadn’t won the Grey Cup since 1971. But he had stardom during his Boston College days when the Eagles won the Cotton Bowl in 1985 and beat Miami on his now-famous “Hail Mary” pass.

“It’s nice, but I’ve been there before and it’s taxing,” Flutie said. “But you can’t turn it down. I’m just glad everyone back in Calgary can share it.”

Flutie said the championship meant as much as a Super Bowl, even if he didn’t grow up with the Grey Cup like some of his Canadian teammates.

“It means just a little bit more to the Canadians who grew up with the history of the game,” Flutie said. “As a kid, I was watching Super Bowls. But this means as much to me as a Super Bowl. This is as big as it gets for me--the Super Bowl, the Grey Cup.”

All in all, it seems to be a perfect match: The league with all its doubters and a star who has spent his entire career trying to persuade the skeptics.