Doug Fluti said how he sees it.
For the first time, the Heismen Trophy winner, the six -time CFL’s most outstanding player and a one -time Pro Baller saw Nathan Rourke live, believed that Canadian was an aristocratic quarterback.
“Rourke in British Columbia, the day I saw him playing-and a few years before signing with Jacksonville-he was immediately an NFL-Calibrey man, I thought. I thought, decide his decision, the ability to make plays on my own, time to remove the balls, to throw the ball out, to throw with the rhythm,” Flutti said. “
It is as if the fluoti predicted the future. Rourke earned an NFL shot by winning the most outstanding Canadian award to CFL and spent a season in the south of the border, where he wore clothes in three matches, before finishing the year with New England Patriots, with Jacksonville.
“When you reach enough ground, you start feeling confident, see things clearly, and you are resting there. Once you play a few years here, it is not different from (NFL). That’s why you can jump and I jumped and then NFL, Jeff Garcia and then Dae Garcanson, back-to-back, went into all.
Rourke’s NFL attempt ended after playing a Presiden game in the next season with Atlanta Falcons, after an offsen stent with New York veterans. He returned to CFL and once again proved to be his ability to play at a high level in a three-down league.
“In CFL, you can get away with just a great athlete, moving around and can buy time. And then there are people who can do it, but also at that time and rhythm at that time and is reading coverage and is reading a progress, and it is an inter-producer,” Flutti said.
“Vernon Adams is dynamic, a very great athlete. Bo levy (Michel) down in Hamilton; A conampat pro, a smart quarterback. Talented people (in CFL). Once you reach a certain point, where you have experience under your belt, you can play at a level, you can go anywhere, and that is there, that is there, and that is it.
Fluti said that playing in CFLs brought back the fun in football, highlighting Don Mathews and Michael ‘Pinball’ Clamens. She shared that her 37-year-old daughter, Alexa, still talks about the gray cup parade in the city of Toronto, when Argonats won the back-to-back in 1996 and 1997.
“Here, this ball was spread out, six receivers, throw the ball throughout the ground, use quarterbacks as a runner – all these things that are really suited to my abilities. It’s now items that NFL is copying us,” Flutti said.
“It was never written in a playbook, but we made an RPO – we did it on a fly. If that man comes to deal with me, I am throwing you the ball. It was very innovative, and it was taken to NFL. Now the athlete NFL is playing below the quarterbacks, and they are doing all the things we used to do.”
Lamor Jackson can be used as a great example. 30 years ago, Jackson’s best way to play professional football would have come to CFL. However, with the evolution of NFL offenses and ideas processes, Baltimor Revenne chose him in the first round, a total of 32nd position during the 2018 NFL draft.
“Was he as high as a draft option as he was? No. You can still reach there, make it and prove your ability, but you could not like the draft of the first round and anointed the situation,” Fluti said. “You had to earn it if you were an athlete quarterback of that kind, instead of four men of six feet who were standing there and thrown.”
