Flutie to call it quits after fun-filled career

The quarterback and Heisman winner played 12 years in the NFL.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- Doug Flutie retired Monday, ending a career in which the undersized Heisman Trophy winner threw one of college football's most famous passes and played a dozen seasons in the NFL, making a drop kick in his last game.
"It's just been a fun run for me," the 43-year-old Flutie said.
Flutie finished his career with one season with the New England Patriots, for whom he threw 10 passes in five games but was able to play near his home in Natick and close to Boston College, where he won the Heisman in 1984.
"To finish it up by getting back here is very special," he said at a news conference at Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots.
Headed for TV booth
Flutie's next job will be as a college football analyst with ABC and ESPN. He'll work in the ABC studio during Saturday's college football games and on ESPN studio shows, and might be an analyst at some games.
Flutie spent 12 seasons in the NFL and played in the U.S. Football League and the Canadian Football League. He won the CFL's Most Outstanding Player award six times and the league's Grey Cup championship three times.
The Patriots listed him at 5-feet-10, but he said Monday he actually was one-eighth of an inch shorter.
"Like some of us," said Robert Kraft, the Patriots diminutive owner, "he was vertically challenged and he never let it slow him down."
Flutie finishes with 14,715 passing yards and 86 touchdowns in the NFL, spending most of his time as a backup. Last season, he converted the league's first drop kick for an extra point since the 1941 NFL title game.
"If that ends up being my last play, it wouldn't be bad," Flutie said after the game, a mostly meaningless regular season-ending loss to the Miami Dolphins.
Most memorable play
His college career was also punctuated by a play that endures as one of the most memorable in the sport. He won the 1984 Heisman after connecting with Gerard Phelan on a desperation 48-yard touchdown pass that beat Miami as time expired.
But Flutie started only six games in the last four seasons, the first three with San Diego.
Flutie left BC as the school's passing leader with 10,579 yards, and he remains a hero on campus; his Heisman is the centerpiece of the school's new Hall of Fame. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the 11th round in 1985 but chose to play for the USFL's New Jersey Generals, owned by Donald Trump.
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