BOSTON – Doug Flutie stood in a landmark of the American
Revolution on Friday night and said he felt liberated by the
Buffalo Bills' decision to release him this week.
"I'm not bitter," the 37-year-old quarterback said. "I'm
looking at it as a great opportunity for me. For the first time as
a free agent in the NFL, I'm not knocking down doors. They're
looking for me."
Standing in the rotunda at Quincy Market, along Boston's
historic Freedom Trail, Flutie said he has already had serious
talks with four NFL teams. A statue of Samuel Adams, a New England
patriot of another era, stood guard outside over Faneuil Hall,
where Colonial Americans met to protest English rule in 1764.
"It's not a bad time to be a free agent. There are great
opportunities out there," he said. Asked what he was looking for
in his ninth pro team, he said, "I fully expect that I will go in
as a No. 1 quarterback."
Flutie would not list the teams that had expressed serious
interest except for San Diego, where former Buffalo general manager
John Butler has taken over as GM and cut longtime headache Ryan
Leaf. He also said he didn't think he would wind up in New England,
where he played from 1987-89.
Flutie, who was signed by the USFL in 1985 in an attempt to give
the failing league credibility, said he would not play in the
fledgling XFL. He also sounded unlikely to join his brother in the
CFL, where he won six MVP awards from 1990-97 before leaving for a
second stint in the NFL.
"That's the only reason I came back," to win a Super Bowl, he
said. "It's not about money. It's not about ego or any of that.
It's about winning a championship down here."
A Heisman Trophy winner at Boston College, Flutie's 1984 "Hail
Mary" pass against Miami earned him legendary status that lingers
to this day. But he has been a controversial figure in the NFL,
where his inability to impress scouts with his arm – or his height
– has butted heads with his tendency to win.
But nowhere was he more controversial than in Buffalo, where his
growing conflict with Rob Johnson split the team into two camps.
The Bills said at the end of last season that they would end the
dispute by releasing one of them this winter.
Johnson's supporters won out on Wednesday when the team cut
Flutie and kept Johnson, who will be $1.4 million cheaper against
the salary cap next season. Flutie said he was only surprised by
the decision because early media speculation had predicted that he
would be kept.
Flutie is 10 years older and six inches shorter than Johnson,
who at 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds is the more conventional size for an
NFL quarterback. But Flutie was 21-9 over three years as a starter
in Buffalo, and also won three CFL championships and was named the
league's most outstanding player an unprecedented six times.
Johnson was 8-10 as a starter in Buffalo, had trouble getting
rid of the ball and was injury-prone, getting knocked out of four
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 Doug Flutie only sees positives in his being released by the Bills.
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