I wonder what Bernie Kosar was doing when he heard the news.

Nearly 22 years after Kosar's Miami Hurricanes were beaten on a last second Hail-Mary TD pass against Boston College, the QB who threw that game-winning pass announced his retirement from the NFL.  Yesterday, Doug Flutie said goodbye to professional football after 21 seasons.

At 5'10", 180 pounds, Flutie was never considered big enough or strong enough to be an elite level quarterback.  However, the little man with the big heart made a name for himself on the football field through sheer force of will. 

His collegiate career at Boston College was a prestigious one, though no one could have seen it coming.  The BC football program was struggling in the early 1980's.  The school hadn't been invited to a bowl game in nearly 40 years, and in the three seasons prior to Flutie's arrival, BC had gone 12-21.  Although the three-sport star from Natick High School in Massachusetts had dreams of playing big-time college football, he was recruited by exactly one Division I program.  And they had gone 12-21 the prior three seasons.

But Boston College had hired a new football coach for the 1981 season, and Jack Bicknell was about to turn around the BC football program with the help of the undersized quarterback that no one else wanted.  Whether scrambling or rocketing passes downfield with a surprisingly strong arm, Flutie flourished in BC's wide open offense.  By 1982, the team ended the school's long post season drought with a Tangerine Bowl appearance against Bo Jackson's Auburn Tigers (a 33-26 loss).

In 1984, Flutie's senior season, the little QB who could made national headlines.  Flutie punctuated his Heisman Trophy-winning season with a thrilling comeback win against the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes.  Miami quarterback Bernie Kosar and Flutie went toe-to-toe for four quarters, each player driving his team to scores seemingly at will.  With a minute to go, Miami went ahead 45-41, and Kosar retreated to the sidelines with 447 passing yards, two TD's, and the game in his back pocket. 

However, Flutie answered back.  Loudly.  With 6 seconds left in the game, he fired a perfect strike from 48 yards that hit receiver Gerard Phelan between the numbers and gave BC a stunning 47-45 victory.  The Eagles went on to finish the year 10-2 with a 45-28 thrashing of Houston in the Cotton Bowl as an exclamation point.  Doug Flutie took home college football's biggest piece of hardware and had hopes of NFL stardom just around the corner.

Sadly, it did not happen.

Flutie tumbled all the way down to the 11th round of the NFL Draft amid speculation that he would sign with the rival USFL.  (Note to Matt Leinart: dropping to the 10th pick of the 1st round is a cake walk by comparison.)  So, Flutie went ahead and signed with the fledgling league.  His boss?  None other than the Donald himself, who owned the New Jersey Generals (and leave it to the Donald to name his team something only a step or two removed from the rube opponents of the Harlem Globetrotters!).

But before Trump could say, "You're fired," the USFL went out of business (and, in effect, "fired" everyone, the Donald included).  So, Doug Flutie, the Heisman-winning Golden Boy, was made to pound the pavement looking for a job.  Fortunately, Flutie landed with the playoff-bound Chicago Bears.  Unfortunately, the Bears ran an offense about as far away from Jack Bicknell's wide-open, run-and-gun style at BC as possible.

There is always a lot of talk in the NFL about the importance of quarterbacks playing in skill-compatible offensive systems.  That said, Doug Flutie was never meant to sit in the pocket, hand the ball off 75% of the time, and throw 12 passes a game.  After two seasons of mostly backup duty, he went back home to the Boston area and tried his hand with the New England Patriots.  While he did see more playing time, the results weren't much better.  Shackled by conservative play, Flutie was like a skilled driver not given the keys to a fast car except for intermittent trips to the market and back.

With any meager NFL opportunities drying up quickly, Flutie decided to go to the one place he knew would suit his frenetic, wide open style of play.  Oh, Canada, indeed.

With a bigger field and fewer downs, Flutie was left to pass the ball to his heart's content in the CFL.  Flutie's scrambling, gun slinger style netted him six Most Outstanding Player awards and three Grey Cup championships.  In the wild ride that was Flutie's eight-year CFL career, he passed for over 40,000 yards and 270 TD's.  Finally, he was given the keys to the car and allowed to open the thing up on the highway.

His success in Canada allowed him a second stint in the NFL, and given more leeway, he found pockets of success.  He helped the Buffalo Bills make the playoffs in 1998 and 1999 and took over an awful San Diego Chargers team in 2001 and led the team to a modest four-game improvement.

But clipboard duty also beckoned, and he spent nearly as much time on the sidelines as on the field.  In the end, the NFL was never convinced that desire could outweigh genetics, and Doug Flutie left the league with unfulfilled promise practically dripping off of him.

In a final hurrah and in his final NFL game, Flutie successfully completed the first drop kick for an extra point in the NFL in 60 years.  And in that final moment in the football spotlight, the little man with the big heart showed a glimpse of what the NFL had been missing all of those years: something surprising and fun and not likely to be seen again for a very long time.

Perhaps that is the truest measure of Doug Flutie's football legacy, that heart can be bigger than height and that every once and a while you just need to give a guy the keys to the car and let him loose on the Autobahn.

Just ask Bernie Kosar.  He'd probably tell you that that car went by pretty fast and that it's not likely something you will see again for a good long while.