Cameroon timber
Photo courtesy: Ben Green/Buffalo Bills
Doug Flutie calls it how he sees it.
The first time the Heisman Trophy winner, six-time CFL Most Outstanding Player and one-time Pro Bowler saw Nathan Rourke live, he believed the Canadian was an elite quarterback.
“Rourke out in British Columbia, the day I saw him play — and it’s a couple of years before he signed with Jacksonville — he was an NFL-calibre guy right away, I thought. His decision-making, his ability to make plays on his own, the timing of getting the ball out, throwing with rhythm,” Flutie said.
It’s as though Flutie predicted the future. Rourke earned an NFL shot by winning the CFL Most Outstanding Canadian award and spent one season south of the border, mostly with Jacksonville, before finishing the year with the New England Patriots, where he dressed for three games.
“When you get on the field enough, you start feeling confident, see things clearly, and you’re relaxed out there. Once you’ve played a handful of years up here, it’s no different from [the NFL]. That’s why you can jump. I jumped and went back to the NFL, Jeff Garcia, and then Dave Dickenson, back-to-back-to-back, all went,” Flutie said.
Rourke’s NFL attempt ended after playing one preseason game the following season with the Atlanta Falcons, following an offseason stint with the New York Giants. He came back to the CFL and proved once again his ability to play at a high level in the three-down league.
“In the CFL, you can get away with just being a great athlete, moving around and buying time. And then there’s the guys that can do that, but also have that timing and rhythm and reading the coverage and going through a progression, and that’s the difference-maker,” Flutie said.
“Vernon Adams is dynamic, a very great athlete. Bo Levi [Mitchell] down in Hamilton; Bo’s a consummate pro, a smart quarterback. There are talented guys [in the CFL]. Once you get to a certain point where you’ve had that experience under your belt, you’re on a level playing field, you can go play anywhere, and that’s where Bo is, that’s where Vernon Adams is.”
Flutie said playing in the CFL put the fun back in football for him while highlighting Don Matthews and Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons. He shared that his 37-year-old daughter, Alexa, still talks about Grey Cup parades in downtown Toronto when the Argonauts won back-to-back in 1996 and 1997.
“Up here, it was spread the ball out, six receivers, throw the ball all over the field, use the quarterback as a runner — do all these things that really suited my abilities. It’s stuff now that the NFL is copying from us,” Flutie said.
“It wasn’t ever written down in a playbook, but we made up the RPO — we did it on the fly. If that guy comes off to tackle me, I’m throwing you the ball. It was very innovative, and it carried over to the NFL. Now the athletes are playing quarterback down in the NFL, and they’re doing all the things we used to do.”
Lamar Jackson can be used as a great example. 30 years ago, Jackson’s best path to playing professional football likely would have come in the CFL. However, with NFL offences and thought processes evolving, the Baltimore Ravens selected him in the first round, 32nd overall, during the 2018 NFL Draft.
“Would he have been as high of a draft choice as he was? No. You could still get there, make it and prove your worth, but you weren’t a first-round draft choice and get anointed the position,” Flutie said. “You had to go earn it if you were that kind of an athlete quarterback, rather than the six-foot-four guy that stood there and threw.”