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Published on Sept. 19, 2008
HAMILTON, ONT. — Doug Flutie said he watches Canadian Football League games on television “all the time.” He said he misses the sport dearly, but not quite enough to follow former coach Don Matthews out of retirement and into active duty.
“I’m done, stick a fork in me,” Flutie said with a smile. “I’m actually playing with my brothers in a men’s baseball league. I’m having a blast doing it, but boy, I feel like an old man.”
No matter how he may have been feeling, the 45-year-old still looked like he could have been playing on Friday night, even after he slipped into a jacket from the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Flutie headlined what might be the strongest induction class in history, a group including former running back Mike Pringle, all-purpose threat Michael (Pinball) Clemons, offensive lineman John Bonk and long-time executive Tom Shepherd.
All five men signed autographs for dozens of fans before Friday night’s game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Ivor Wynne Stadium, and all five will be officially inducted at a gala dinner Saturday night in Hamilton.
During their careers, the four men inducted as players combined to win the Canadian Football League’s outstanding player award nine times. There were also 10 Grey Cup titles and 19 nominations as league all-stars.
Flutie downplayed the “greatest ever” label.
“It’s very flattering to say that,” he said. “But if you go back, there’s different eras, and you can’t compare era to era. It doesn’t translate. The thing for me, in looking at the history of this league and the guys, it’s something that, when I came up here in my first two years, I learned to embrace.”
And few players have been as embraced by the rules of the Canadian game as Flutie, who won the outstanding player award six times in a career spanning eight seasons. He won the Grey Cup three times and, two years ago, he was voted as the best player in league history by a panel of experts convened by TSN.
“I’ve been retired for 2 1/2 years now, and I’ve not been to an NFL game,” Flutie said. “I’ve been to two CFL games.”
Clemons was the final inductee to arrive Friday night, long after he was expected. But it was fitting, because his career was built around the defiance of expectations. His small stature — officially listed as five-foot-five — only made him more difficult for tacklers to locate, and it helped him set the career record for all-purpose yards (25,438).
Bonk was a four-time CFL all-star, all with the Blue Bombers.
Shepherd, a former president of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, has helped raise more than $10 million to keep the franchise viable.
Pringle was twice named the league’s outstanding player and retired as the all-time rushing leader, with 16,425 yards.
“It’s a huge honour,” Pringle said. “When I first heard that I was being inducted, it didn’t hit me at that point, not until the week started getting closer to when I was going to come down. Then I said, ‘Hey, Mike Pringle, Hall of Famer. That sounds pretty good.'”