He won't cry uncle at BC
Billy Flutie is first to carry the family's second-generation torch

The kid catches my eye because he's hauling in some pretty tough throws. Wait, hold on a minute. Now he's passing the football. But that's before he lines up with the defensive backs and tries to pick off a spiral in mid-flight. At noontime, the others attending Boston College's summer football camp break for lunch, but this kid isn't done yet. He jogs over to the 43-yard line and boots the football through the uprights, with a chunk of real estate to spare.
You do the math. It's a 60-yard kick. I watch him do it twice, and I am just dying to know: who is this kid?
The answer shouldn't have surprised me: he's a Flutie.
The first of the next generation of Natick's most famous football family is Billy Flutie, son of Bill Flutie, who played football at Brown but spent a considerable amount of his spare time at Boston College, where younger brothers Doug and Darren literally reinvented Eagles football.
It isn't easy wearing Flutie on your back -- especially when you are born and raised in Natick, the same town where your father and your uncles prospered. Billy is a three-sport star, just like them. He is hassled about his pedigree on the football field, in the basketball gym, and on the baseball diamond.
''The other teams are gunning for me," Billy Flutie said. ''They're always saying things to me. The name comes with a lot of pressure. But I don't care. I block it all out."
Sometimes, they go too far. Chanting his name while he shoots free throws is one thing, but one basketball heckler became so worked up spewing venom Billy's way, he had to be removed from the building.
Then there was the football game when fans walked around with signs that read: ''Kill Flutie." When Billy lined up to kick an extra point, his opponents went straight for his head. Flutie landed in the hospital with a concussion.
The Flutie family prefers not to discuss which towns engaged in such practices. They have accepted the fact that their son, their nephew, their grandson, their cousin must learn to cope with both the good and the bad of perpetuating a family legacy. They have taught him to be polite and poised. The attention, they remind him, is a sign of respect.
''Billy handles it pretty well," his father said. ''We told him he'd have to get used to it. It started all the way back when he was 11 years old and he was competing in the punt, pass, and kick competition in Foxborough. It was at halftime of the Patriots-Bills game, and Doug was the quarterback for Buffalo. Every kid is wearing a Bledsoe jersey except Billy. He's wearing a Flutie jersey. So all these people start throwing booze at him."

Jackie MacMullan