Doug Flutie has watched enough football history to know when something\u2019s about to repeat itself \u2014 and heading into Super Bowl 60, he swears he can feel 2001 in the air.<\/p>\n
Doug Flutie has watched enough football history to know when something\u2019s about to repeat itself \u2014 and heading into Super Bowl 60, he swears he can feel 2001 in the air.<\/p>\n
Flutie has never shied away from stepping out of the pocket, and on the SportsCage, Flutie didn\u2019t blink when asked for his Super Bowl LX\u00a0prediction.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s rolling with the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right, despite the oddsmakers and most analysts leaning toward the Seattle Seahawks, Flutie sees something familiar brewing ahead of Sunday\u2019s showdown.<\/p>\n
Flutie told the SportsCage this matchup reminds him of the 2001 Patriots, the team that shocked the football world by grinding their way to the big game and then slowing down the high-flying \u201cGreatest Show on Turf.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSeattle\u2019s supposed to be the better team \u2014 they deserve to be favoured,\u201d Flutie said.
\n\u201cBut this feels like that first Tom Brady Super Bowl. Ugly win in the snow, fortunate bounce or two, and suddenly the underdog is the one dictating the terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
Maybe it should \u2014 because the Patriots have been here before. Often. If the Patriots are going to pull the upset, Flutie says it starts with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.<\/p>\n
Flutie was with Tom Brady and McDaniels during their New England days and says the offensive coordinator’s true power lies in his willingness to adapt.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows what his quarterback does well and builds around that. He\u2019s open, he\u2019ll compromise, and he\u2019ll let the QB guide things \u2014 especially someone like Tom.\u201d<\/p>\n
That same flexibility, Flutie says, is what turned things around this year with Patriots phenom Drake Maye.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took him a little while to get a feel for what Drake was doing well. Drake\u2019s mobility opens up things he couldn\u2019t do with Tom. Josh adapts \u2014, and he\u2019s fearless with his play-calls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flutie even shared a behind-the-scenes story from the Patriots\u2019 Super Bowl week of an undefeated season, remembering McDaniels excitedly walking him through a bag of trick plays like a kid showing off fireworks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrowback to the quarterback, double-pass \u2014 he loves that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Patriots pull one out of the hat Sunday, don\u2019t say he didn\u2019t warn us.<\/p>\n
The subject then shifted to the Hall of Fame debate around Bill Belichick and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Flutie didn\u2019t mince words.<\/p>\n
\u201cRidiculous. Eight Super Bowls \u2014 no one else is in the ballpark. Anyone who didn\u2019t vote for him should have their vote removed.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Deflategate? Flutie called it a non-story based on simple physics. On sign-stealing? He laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody steals signals. Always have. That\u2019s part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Classic Flutie \u2014 irreverent, blunt, and absolutely sure.<\/p>\n
In one of the more entertaining turns, Flutie dove into the history of NFL football preparation \u2014 including how Peyton Manning and Brady pushed the league to allow quarterbacks to prep balls during the week.<\/p>\n
Flutie says the old days were no fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrand-new out-of-the-box balls. Film on them. Slippery for the first half of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he claims that in Denver, Colorado, the visiting kickers had it even worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d slip brand-new kicking balls in on the road team. Slick as ice. Cost you once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
No wonder we\u2019re seeing 65-yard field goals now \u2014 the balls finally behave.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not shocking that most experts are backing Seattle. They\u2019ve earned it. They\u2019re physical, balanced, and deep.<\/p>\n
But something about this matchup feels familiar \u2014 not just to Flutie, but to football fans who\u2019ve lived through twenty years of New England refusing to go away quietly.<\/p>\n
And if this turns into one of those chaotic Super Bowls where a trick play, a late turnover, or a moment of magic decides it?<\/p>\n
Well\u2026 Flutie\u2019s already told you who thrives in that environment.<\/p>\n
His pick: Patriots over Seahawks.<\/p>\n
Just like 2001 \u2014 when nobody saw it coming.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doug Flutie has watched enough football history to know when something\u2019s about to repeat itself \u2014 and heading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,188957,82],"class_list":["post-462422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-nflcflsportscagedoug-flutie","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}