But Troy Flutie wasn’t always so capable. Natick’s team has a 7-2 record - remarkable for a sophomore quarterback. We really gave him a lot of responsibility and he can handle it.' 'You know he watches a lot of film,' Mortarelli says, whistle in hand as he watches his players practice. But that style offense also demands a lot of his young QB. Natick runs a no-huddle spread offense that makes the most of Troy’s ability to run and throw. Out on the field, head coach Mark Mortarelli runs his sophomore quarterback through quick passing drills. Now to have our kids, especially my son old enough to play in this game, it’s exciting!' You play Thanksgiving Day, come home, have dinner, and just sit and watch football all day like a lot of football families do. 'If you go back long enough in the '80s and late '70s when my brother Bill and Doug and myself played here at Natick,' Darren remembers, 'I mean our whole family, and certainly Thanksgiving, was built around football. The season' s overall message is clear in the Natick HS coaches' room. But Darren says the traditional Thanksgiving game against Framingham holds the most memories. The brothers played together at Boston College, and then in the Canadian Football League before Doug made it to the NFL. Darren played at Natick High like his star brother, Doug.

'Pump it and look for it,' receivers coach Darren Flutie says as others look on, nodding. But inside the training facility just off the field, inside the squat, cinder block building, his father and the other coaches are drawing up plays for Troy to execute. The late autumn sun gives an auburn glow to the hair curling from his helmet. At six feet tall, he’s already three inches taller than his famous uncle. 'There’s also pressure that people are saying I’m a Flutie and I’m only playing 'cause I’m a Flutie.' 'There’s pressure that I have to live up to my uncle and my dad,' says 15-year-old Troy. The Thanksgiving game against Framingham goes back more than 100 years, but the shadow of history falls even more squarely on one player. On Thanksgiving Day, Natick plays its last game of the year against big rival Framingham.Įarlier this week, Natick High players in red jerseys and white helmets ran through one of their last practices of the season, as shadows stretched across the field. And Thursday the latest chapter in the Flutie football story will be written. And the sophomore is quarterbacking the same Natick High School team that Doug led before heading off to BC. That Flutie is Troy Flutie, Doug Flutie’s nephew. And he gets the first down, and he is in the end zone for a touchdown.' 'Flutie in the shotgun,' says a Needham community access TV announcer, with decidedly less energy. © 2021 New Orleans Saints.This Thanksgiving, there’s another Flutie at quarterback.

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