No Time for Small Talk
Short? Who you calling short? You can’t be talking about Doug Flutie, who has put up with that garbage throughout his NFL career. Finally, the football world knows the truth.
Flutie’s shadow stretches from coast to coast.
Just ask the fans in Buffalo who can’t seem to swallow the fact their 5-foot-10 hero is now San Diego’s starting quarterback, and might even pull for him Sunday when the Chargers play host to the Bills. That San Diego is 4-2 and fresh off a trampling of Denver has not gone unnoticed by the Flutie Faithful, whose hometown team is 1-4.
The CBS affiliate in Buffalo has aired every Charger game, and two western New York radio stations made unsuccessful attempts to cut broadcast deals with the team. Local newspapers received a landslide of letters in March when the Bills chose Rob Johnson over Flutie, and Tom Donahoe, the team’s president and general manager, personally responded to more than 100 angry calls and e-mails.
“Doug Flutie was like a rock star who played football,” said defensive end Marcellus Wiley, one of seven Charger players and executives who were with the Bills last season. “He was adored.”
Johnson, the former USC star, has lived with that reality the last three seasons. He was asked if it will feel strange facing Flutie.
“I don’t have to face him,” he said. “He’s not playing defense. Well, some of his fans probably think he can play defense.”
The stinging sarcasm has flowed both ways. Flutie is sensitive about being dumped by a franchise for whom he played so well. When a concussion knocked Johnson out of action in 1998, Flutie stepped in and went 7-3, earning comeback player of the year honors and his first trip to the Pro Bowl. In 1999, he set a Bills’ record for rushing yards by a quarterback (476). The quarterback juggling continued last season and was blamed for the team’s 8-8 finish, which led to the firing of Wade Phillips as coach.
All of a sudden, the town was too small for two quarterbacks.
“Both of us were competing for a job,” said Flutie, who was 21-9 as a Buffalo starter. “And you do what you can to prepare every week. We got along in meetings. We sat in meetings together every day. It was a business relationship more than a friendship. We weren’t best of friends, but there wasn’t this hatred that everyone’s made it out to be. I guess Steve Young and Joe Montana went through the same thing. Two guys trying to fight for a job.”
But, according to Wiley, the friction between the quarterbacks was constant last season.
“It was weird, man, totally Young and the Restless,” he said. “You’d come in the locker room and it was like, ‘OK, what’s going on today?”’
Like any good soap opera, this one was replete with plot lines. Ralph Wilson, who owns the Bills, wanted to keep General Manager John Butler around. Six times he tried to extend his contract--due to expire this year--and six times Butler declined. Finally, in December, Wilson grudgingly fired him.
Throughout last season, rumors surfaced that San Diego wanted to hire Butler. And, sure enough, the Chargers did so 17 days after Buffalo showed him the door. Wilson intimated he planned to file tampering charges with the league but never did. His anger toward San Diego and Butler was obvious, however. Last spring, Wilson told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: “I’d rather beat the Chargers this year than win the Super Bowl.”
Asked Monday about that comment, Flutie said: “He’s got a lot of explaining to do to his players.”
Those players who aren’t already in San Diego, that is. It seems as if half the team defected: Butler brought along Flutie; Wiley; linebackers Sam Rogers and John Holecek; A.J. Smith, the Chargers’ assistant general manager; and Buddy Nix, director of player personnel.
Heading into the off-season, many people predicted Buffalo would choose Flutie. But the Bills decided on Johnson after the quarterbacks interviewed for six hours each with new Coach Gregg Williams. Johnson, the strong-armed son of a high school coach, felt to Williams like a better fit. The Bills were bracing for a rebuilding cycle and were more comfortable putting their future in the hands of 28-year-old Johnson than Flutie, who turned 39 on Tuesday.
“We felt Rob Johnson was the best quarterback,” Donahoe said at the time. “He’s an athlete, he has great size, he has mobility, he can throw all the passes you want a quarterback to throw. He’s still a young quarterback.... We think our staff and our system can take advantage of Rob’s talents and abilities.”
Recalled Flutie: “When I was released, I was a little upset at first. But within an hour I realized it was the best thing for me. The best opportunity for me.”
Johnson didn’t have the experience--or the frenzied fan support--of Flutie, but he was teeming with potential and had thrown more than twice as many touchdown passes (22) as interceptions (10) in his Buffalo career.
One of his problems, though, is his limited mobility. Coming into the season, he had been sacked 86 times on 568 pass plays--one sack every 6.6 times he dropped back--the worst ratio in NFL history, according to STATS Inc.
When the Bills started this season 0-4 and Johnson--who has been sacked 17 times this season--was slow to adjust to the team’s new West Coast offense, fans were quick to grumble. That increases the personal pressure to play well Sunday. He has tried to downplay that this week.
“It’s crazy to me that everyone keeps win-loss records for quarterbacks,” Johnson said. ‘That’s part of the business, but I’m not facing him and he’s not facing me. I know people are going to look at it that way, but I’m not treating it like that.”
Likewise, Flutie is playing it cool.
“My attitude the whole week is going to be to take my normal approach,” he said. “Get caught up in my normal routine, don’t worry about it.”
Then again, he’s the one casting the shadow.
