It’s tough enough losing one parent. Losing two parents, on the same day no less, is almost unconscionable, yet that’s where Doug Flutie is after both of his parents passed away Wednesday of heart attacks.
And where he’ll be this weekend is where he’s been scheduled to be: Fenway Park.
It was confirmed Thursday night that Flutie will be in the broadcast booth for the Boston College-Notre Dame game Saturday on NBC at the iconic ballpark. The former BC great and College Football Hall of Famer is in his first season as a color analyst on Notre Dame games, and has been a part of NBC Sports’ coverage of the Irish the past five years.
Both of Flutie’s parents, Dick and Joan Flutie, died Wednesday within an hour of each other. Dick Flutie had been ill and was hospitalized; "[t]hey say you can die of a broken heart and I believe it,” Doug Flutie wrote in a Facebook posting regarding his mom’s passing. The couple had been married for 56 years.
The meeting between the Irish and Eagles will be the first football game at Fenway Park since December 1, 1968, when -- after five years of calling it home -- the Boston Patriots played their last AFL game at the ballpark. The last college football game played in the home of the Boston Red Sox came in 1956, the last season BC used Fenway Park as its home stadium. That game was played Dec. 1 against Holy Cross.