INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Who Is Doug Flutie Of ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Season 22?

By Stacy Carey
Published on: 07:58 PST, Mar 3, 2016

Football great Doug Flutie is said to be one of the celebrities set to participate on Season 22 of Dancing with the Stars this spring, and fans are thrilled to hear about this casting decision. While this is a cast filled with heavy hitters, many DWTS fans think that Flutie will be one to watch. What do viewers need to know about Doug?

According to PureDWTS, Doug Flutie will dance with Karina Smirnoff this spring on Dancing with the Stars. This will be a football-heavy season, as Pittsburgh Steelers player Antonio Brown is partnered with Peta Murgatroyd and Denver Broncos star Von Miller is paired with Witney Carson. Flutie’s name as a DWTS cast member comes as a bit of a surprise to some, but he is definitely generating a lot of buzz already.

While Brown and Miller are still active NFL players, Flutie is a bit more distanced from his playing days. Doug was a quarterback who played in both the American and Canadian professional football leagues after winning the Heisman Trophy in 1984 as a player at Boston College, notes Bleacher Report.

Although Flutie’s name is familiar to most American football fans, he did not have great success in the NFL during his early years. Doug played for the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots as well as the USFL New Jersey Generals during the first few years of his professional football-playing career.

Flutie then headed to Canada to continue playing, and that is where he spent much of his 21-year career as a player. He was with the British Columbia Lions and the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League for a bit, and he played with the Toronto Argonauts for several seasons as well. From there, Flutie headed back to the NFL to play for the Buffalo Bills and the San Diego Chargers and then did another short run with the Patriots before deciding to retire.

Off the field, Doug married his high-school sweetheart Laurie, and they have a son and a daughter. The couple’s daughter, Alexa, is a cheerleader in the NFL and got married last year. Meanwhile, his son, Doug Jr., has inspired the family in some significant charitable projects. Doug Jr. has autism and is the catalyst for the creation of the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism.

After his 2006 retirement, Flutie shifted into doing football analysis for a variety of networks. He spends much of his time on the East Coast, where he grew up, and in Florida in the Melbourne Beach area. This Dancing with the Stars contestant was the first non-Canadian inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, and he is in the College Football Hall of Fame as well.

Doug Flutie’s name made quite a few headlines this past November when he lost both his mother and father within hours of one another. The new Dancing with the Stars contestant shared the news on his Facebook page, nothing that his father, Dick, had already been in the hospital and died from a heart attack. Sadly, Doug’s mother, Joan, died less than an hour later due to a heart attack as well.

https://www.facebook.com/dflutie/posts/1642996595989775:0

Will Flutie and Smirnoff have what it takes to win the Season 22 Dancing with the Stars Mirrorball trophy? This could be a fun pairing to watch, as Doug is known as a really nice, great guy, and Karina knows how to bring out the best in her partners. He may well garner the sentimental vote, but he has his work cut out for him with such a competitive DWTS cast this spring.

Season 22 of Dancing with the Stars featuring Doug Flutie, Marla Maples, Ginger Zee, and the rest of the cast premieres on Monday, March 21 on ABC. Which DWTS pair will you be voting for this spring?

[Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images]

Share this article: Who Is Doug Flutie Of ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Season 22?
Entertainment tv reality TV Karina Smirnoff Dancing with the Stars
More from Inquisitr