One of the shortest quarterbacks in NFL history is speaking out against size discrimination.
Doug Flutie, the 5-foot-10 quarterback who played for the Bears, Patriots, Bills and Chargers (not to mention the New Jersey Generals, B.C. Lions, Calgary Stampeders and Toronto Argonauts) says it’s time for NFL coaches and general managers to forget about height when assessing quarterbacks. And he says that today’s generation of short quarterbacks are being held back by an obsession with size.
“The biggest issue about the height factor is the bias that the NFL has about it,” Flutie told NFL.com.
Flutie said that for short quarterbacks, the problem isn’t that they can’t see over the line of scrimmage. The problem is that coaches don’t have faith in them and pull the plug as soon as something goes wrong.
“You see the game from that perspective and you throw the football,” Flutie said. “I really do not believe it’s a big deal. I just think that they don’t, in general, give the [short quarterbacks] the opportunities or stick with them. A guy that’s undersized has to prove himself right away. And if you don’t have success right away, you’re out the door.”
Flutie certainly got shortchanged by coaches at times in his own career, so it’s easy to see why he feels that way. The good news for those who want to see shorter quarterbacks given a chance is that the shortest quarterback to enter the NFL this year, Russell Wilson, appears to have landed on a team in Seattle where he’s going to be given a real opportunity to prove he can play. Even though he’s the same height as Flutie.