Goodnight, Sweet Dougie; May Your Dreams Involve Much Frantic Scrambling

He made it official earlier today at a press conference in waterlogged Foxborough: that scrappy, lovable Doug Flutie has finally retired, at the age of 43. As disappointed as we are to see Flutie retire — we always kind of figured he'd play until he was 60 — we are relieved as well; Flutie seems like the type of guy who would die on the field, and be plenty fine with it.

How strange was Flutie's career? He won the Heisman Trophy two years before Vinny Testaverde, and 10 years before Rashaan Salaam. He won the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year award eight years ago. And, of course, he was the CFL MVP six times in seven years.

Here's a few facts you might not have known, or at least remembered, about Dougie-boy Flutie.

• He crossed the picket line in 1987 to play with Keanu Reeves and the rest of the replacement players. • His backup with the Calgary Stampeders, the first team for whom he won the CFL's Grey Cup, was Jeff Garcia. • Rob Johnson retired two years ago. • His last professional play was, of course, that drop kick. • He campaigned for Hillary Clinton in her 2000 Senate race.

Our all-time favorite Flutie moment remains when Jimmy Johnson jumped up and down on a box of Flutie Flakes to fire up his team. When told about the incident, Flutie seemed close to crying. "That cereal is to benefit autism research," said Flutie, whose son is autistic. "That's like him stomping on my son."

Don't stomp on people's children, people. You'll be missed, Doug.

Doug Flutie [Wikipedia]