Doug Flutie and Milt Stegall debate the GOATS - FVS Live

In this special "Studio Sessions" edition of Flutie vs. Stegall, football legends Doug Flutie and Milt Stegall sit down to build their ultimate all-time dream teams.

From debating the greatest quarterbacks to ever touch the gridiron—comparing the likes of Joe Montana and Warren Moon—to selecting the most dominant running backs and receivers, no superstar is off-limits. They also dive into the defensive side of the ball, sharing personal stories about facing off against powerhouses like Reggie White and Lawrence Taylor, and which legendary coaches they’d want leading their squads.

As an added bonus, Doug shares some wild stories from his life in Florida, including his "deal" with the sharks while stand-up paddleboarding and how he’s trying to convince Milt to join him on the water.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And that's what we do.

SPEAKER_04 0:01

We go out and you're out there with these charts.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

It's the ocean. I need you to get on this turn.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Yeah. Fruity versus Stiegel.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

It is Fruity versus Stiegel, the studio sessions edition. Here is Doug Flutie. Here is Milt Stiegel. It's great to be together. It's great to talk balls. Great to tell some stories. Yes. And to be with two of the best to ever do it is great because I've learned so much about football through YouTube and just kind of the way you guys see the game. So back in the day we had the all-Matten team. Now I want to do your all-time all-flutie team, your all-time all-Steagall team. When it comes to the skilled positions, you know, quarterback, receivers, running backs, then on the defensive side, who's the best linebacker you'd want on your team? What's the best pass rusher you want on your team? Who's the coach you want running your team? And the only rule you can't pick yourselves. So because I know you would pick yourself. At every position. Every position.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

Do these have to be players and coaches that we work with?

SPEAKER_03 1:16

No, just all time.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Pick your top spot. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Okay. All right. Well, you're all-time. So um, Doug, you're the quarterback. We will we will revert to you on who would be your quarterback.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

All-time great Tom Brady. I've been around to but I'm gonna put that aside because it's too obvious. I'm going Joe Montana. Okay. I'm going Joe because he was my hero growing up, and he was mobile athletic, that mold that he could still do the other stuff. You know, the game changed by the time Tom was Tom, but um I'll take Joe as my guy just because I've and I just uh you know that was my hero growing up, and he situationally, it was a different game then, but he was still athletic. He he could move, he could do the bootleg stuff and take off and run when he needed to. I love Joe. And fourth quarter comeback.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

Joe Montana. Not to rub salt in the wound, Mr. Cincinnati Super Bowl 23, finding John Taylor in the back of the end zone.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

I was sitting in the end zone watching that drive from the opposite end. Like when they were when they were backed up and Joe was talking about John Candy in the stands and all that. Yeah. Yeah, I was I could, I could hear, I could hear those guys breathing in the huddle from that distance. By the time they scored a touchdown, they were 110 yards away. Sure. Who's your quarterback, Bill?

SPEAKER_04 2:32

Okay. Only reason I'm not picking Doug, because he's sitting here. That's the only reason I'm not picking him. Otherwise, I'll pick him. But I'm gonna go with the man who's only foot professional football player who's in the CFL and NFL Hall of Fame. That's Warren Moon. That's who I'm going with Warren Moon. Yeah, he he was spectacular on uh both sides of the border. Of course, he started off in Edmonton in Canada, and then he went and tore it up in uh Houston, and I saw that firsthand. You know, my three years with the Bengals, they were doing a running shoot. It was unfortunate he couldn't, you know, get him to the to the to the Super Bowl, but they were doing some great things with that run and shoot in Houston. So that's my quarterback. Warren Moon. Warren Moon throws. His arm strength was ridiculous. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

I got a buddy, uh well, Bobby Torrance back from my Calgary days. He was a Canadian kid backup quarterback in the CFL. And Bobby used to, yeah, when people would talk about Warren Moon, and he was fantastic, they won the five straight and all that. He's like, Wilkie, Wilkie won two of those. Wilkie came off the bench and had to save his ass. Wilkie Wilkerson, I guess, was a Canadian guy. Exactly. So he, but that was Bobby's hero.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

And like Doug, Warren played into his 40s. Yep. Remember, went on to Minnesota and played all the time. All the way.

SPEAKER_04 3:43

Running back. In my opinion, this is the greatest football player, period, regardless of position, and that's uh Barry Sanders. Wow, okay. Barry Sanders, and I saw him right out of high school. My first college game was against the Oklahoma State. His his Heisman Trophy uh season. If you watch his Heisman Trophy highlights, Miami of Ohio is probably half of those highlights. Right. He destroyed us. So he would be my starter. But right behind him is a guy named Charles Roberts. So if you don't know about the CFL, know about Winnipeg, you don't know about Charles Roberts, but you know about Charles. He was a spectacular player, but running back Barry Sanders, and it's not even close.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

I'm going, and there's two guys that are the same exact mode. I even talked about this in a uh in a uh kind of a football life story for Ledanian Tomlinson. Um so I'm gonna go old school, but they're the same guy in my mind. So it's Ladanian Tomlinson or Walter Payton, and I'm gonna go Walter because of the ball. I played with both of them. That's amazing. I had some I played with Thurman Thomas, Walter Payton, Ladanian. It's it's amazing the guys I've rubbed shoulders with. But phenomenal running back, you know, make people miss, run people over, lower, be physical, and could run routes and catch the ball like a wide receiver. My first touchdown pass in this in the NFL was to Walter. Over the top corner route for a running back in the back of the end zone, dragging his feet, catching it over. You know, he just he he could throw the ball like a quarterback. And he did play a little quarterback when guys got banged up.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Um, so as a quarterback, I like the versatile guy that could catch the ball out of backfield and all that. And that's you know, obviously they're all great. But yeah, yeah, I'll go with Walter. What was Walter like? Walter was a fun, loving prankster type guy. And he he was great for me because when I got to Chicago, I was going into a hornet's nest of a team that really wasn't excited that I was coming in. Right. And you know, McMahon was making making things a little more difficult for me than they needed to be. And the guy, yeah. And so Walter was a good friend. Uh Walter and Willie Galt out of that group were good friends. Willie Galt could fly. He could run. He was a trap guy who was able to play football.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

So I think, I think if memory serves, he may have even been an Olympic bobsledder. Yeah, he made that too because of his speed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. All right, so we got our quarterbacks, we got our running backs. We'll defer to our receiver first. Who's the guy catching the ball? Well, first of all, Jerry Rice.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

If anybody, if you don't pick Jerry Rice, Doug, you're up out of here.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

So he's one. And the other one, I'm gonna go with Randy Moss.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 6:19

There's and some people may have been faster than Randy Moss as far as if you timed him in the 40. But once you get him on the football, there was nobody who's ever played football up to this point who looked faster than Randy Moss once he got the ball in his hands. He did some spectacular things with that ball in his hand with the ball in his hands. It was unfortunate that that year in New England, they couldn't finish it off and have the perfect season. Crazy. But Randy Moss, he's the guy. Jerry Rice, of course, is a guy, but Randy Moss, he's right there.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

And Randy could go climb the ladder to go get the ball.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

He'd throw that hand up, and that was it. That is the amazing part of the game that you know it's so precise on offense, right? Your depth of your route, you're this, you're that read coverage rotation, quarterback, didn't through progression. And a guy throws his hands up and you're supposed to see it. Right. And you did when it was Randy, right because you were usually locked in. And I agree, most dominant receiver ever to play the game, Randy Moss.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Greatest technician, wide receiver, no doubt, Jerry Rice. I'm gonna go to the same two guys, but I'm gonna bring Eric Molds with me over there to have your boy. And let E. Molds get a route or two in. Mississippi's finest, baby.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

He's been talking about Eric Molds.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Oh, my brother.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

He got me to the damn promo. That's it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

What was it about Molds? What he was he was fast, he was strong and physical, could get off press coverage, and when he was one-on-one, you knew he was going to get off the press. And if they're inside technique, any outside, we would run the slot fade with him till the cows come home. And if he was in, if he was head up, it didn't matter if he's outside, he'd fight for the outside technique, slot fade, slot fade, outside one-on-one, um fade, right? Just put the ball on a spot for him to have a chance. He was really strong forearms and hands. And he he'd reach out, and once he had his hands a little bit, it wasn't coming out. You weren't, and you put the you were confident enough to just put it up because you know it's not gonna get picked. You're probably gonna get an interference call or he's gonna catch it.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Yeah, yeah. Um let's go with the other. Oh, tight end. You play with some good ones.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

I played with some great ones. Um, and actually, I I'm gonna stay old school when I make my pick, but my story going into it is when I took over, I took over for Drew in the middle of the season in San Diego with the Chargers, and Antonio Gates played his first game. And I knew what kind of talent he was. The coaches weren't sure. He was a basketball player trying to play football at the time. I hit him on a couple middle read balls, a couple corner routes for touchdowns down the red zone. So and it was off and running for for Antonio and his his career, amazing. Um, much more athletic than the guy I'm gonna say, but the guy I'm gonna say, Russ Francis. Back in the day, going way back because. When I was a rookie, Russ was on when I was early in my career, Russ was still playing with the Patriots at the end of his career. Okay and he created the tight end position to what it became. And that's why. I mean, there's guys like Gronk and everybody else that have been since then more athletic, bigger, faster, stronger, but he changed the position. Hey, what about Dave Casper, huh? That's the one. Dave Casper, I was a Baltimore, I was a Baltimore Colts fan. Okay. Colts playing the Raiders, go to overtime. This is the 70s. Burt Jones days with the Colts. Sure. Freaking Dave Casper made over-the-top catch, kicked our ass, went to overtime, beat the Colts in overtime. I hate Dave Casper.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Who are your tight ends, Steagall?

SPEAKER_04 9:54

Uh, we're only picking one, right? He can take two. I'm gonna I'm gonna go with Gronk. I like what Gronk was able to do. He he you could line him up at receiver and he could get it done. He could get it done. He wasn't faster or quicker than the guys, he would just move them around. Uh, also like Shannon Sharp. I like Shannon Sharp. I like what he was able to do. Uh him and Elway did some great things in uh Denver. Uh he wasn't the biggest guy. He wasn't the most physical guy, but he could finesse guys and he could make some big plays down the field. And I know people are like, you didn't pick the greatest tight end of all. And who was that?

SPEAKER_03 10:30

Tony Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_04 10:31

Tony Gonzalez. And I he's right there. Stats wise, I think he's, you know, he's a leader in all the stats or whatever. I think Gronk is right there, Burning. But I like I like Gronk and I like Shinny Shaw.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Mr. Swift is in in the running. Mr. Swift. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

The Kelsey thing is an interesting one.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

It's a different game. Like the he's a well, he's turned into a possession guy.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

At this stage of the game. Yeah, it's it's just a different game. But without Tony Gonzalez, there's no Antonio Gates. There's no Antonio Gates. Like Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Basketball guy defined what that position became.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

You know what? I'm gonna take Shannon Sharp off and put Tony on there.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

I gotta tell you. Yeah, Tony. Yeah, I gotta put Tony on there.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

But that's what I'm saying about Russ Francis one of the was one of the first guys that could get up the field and run. And actually, Howard Cassell labeled his all-world at tight end.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Yeah. Yeah. Pass rusher. We're we're we're living in the age of great ones right now, and Miles Garrett's just I'm gonna stay old on you, but go ahead. Yeah, I was just saying, he's incredible right now. Uh I mean, we're in Vegas. Max Crosby's one of the most dynamic players in the league. He's not ready to be one of the great ones. He's not in there. No, no, no, no, no, no. Uh what do you got, Flooding?

SPEAKER_01 11:41

What do I got? I got a guy that nobody could block, Reggie White. Yeah. Reggie broke my collarbone, separated my shoulder, did the same for a few others, Phil Sims and a couple others. Um Reggie was stronger and quicker than anyone in that era. Like he just it was his just it almost like he wasn't a weight room guy, I don't think. It was a like big country strong type of guy. Sure. And just impossible to block. And he he dictated everything you did offensively. But before when when you're going through game plan, it's like, how do we block Reggie? On this play. On this play, can we do that? No, eliminate that, eliminate this, eliminate. We're gonna do all slide protection, we're gonna do this, that. Um, you couldn't you couldn't block him. But the play that I got injured on was actually USFL day, right? Another USFL guy. Reggie was with the Memphis showboat. I had rolled to my left, it was third and long. I was getting near the sh the line of scrimmage. I didn't want to cross the line, I wanted to go up the field. Reggie was chasing from behind, wrapped me up, tucked my arms, lifted, throve my shoulder into the turf, broke my collarbone. Um Reggie, Reggie was a force. It was it was just different from anyone else in that era.

SPEAKER_04 12:51

Reggie White, I was with Green Bay uh just for you know training camp and all offseason workout in '95. That's the strongest individual I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

No kidding.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

There is no one at any position I've ever seen stronger than Reggie White. He he he was special. But for me, the greatest defensive player in NFL history, Lawrence Taylor. That's who I'm going with. And you can't go wrong with Reggie. Oh, he was a Rush guy. He created the position. Lawrence could have played strong safety. He could have played strong safety if they needed him to.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

They asked me, Lawrence Taylor and I are doing a QA session somewhere in New York years ago, right? And it was a story. It was going to be a good thing. And they asked us who was the most influential coach in your life, blah, blah, blah. And he's talking parcels, he's talking whatever, right? I'm like Tom Coughlin. And he's like, Tom, and at the time, Tom Coughlin was a wide receiver coach in New York. He's like, Tom, are you uh Tom Coughlin? Yeah, Tom ended up winning the Super Bowl. Tom ended up I told you, yeah. No, that was my my LT story. He couldn't believe he's like Tom Coughlin. No, he's like, you know, a brat assistant or something in his mind at the time.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Well, you know the all-time LT story, don't you? Oh, yeah. With him being late or whatever, falling asleep. No, no. So the new giants, like head accountant, the CFO, they cannot balance the books at the end of the fiscal year. They are millions of dollars off, and they can't figure out what's going on. And they finally show up to Lawrence Taylor's locker, and he's got millions of dollars of uncashed checks in his locker. Sitting in his locker with a bunch of gauze and t-shirts and whatever.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

That's an example of they say there's people or players who want to play football and players who want to be football players, he just wanted to play football.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Yeah, he's wanted to play football.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

He didn't care about all the other stuff that came with. He just wanted to play football.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

And strap it on on Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

Strap it on. We go out there like some wild dogs. That was his thing.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Wild dogs. You played for the greatest coach of all time, Doug. Who's the coach of the all-fluty team?

SPEAKER_01 15:09

The coach of the all-flutie team, and and like you say, I was with Bill Belichick in New England just for the one year. But for me, when I was playing, and it was just I should just go to the greatest coach. It's your team, man. Okay, if I'm playing on the team, yeah, I want Don Matthews as my head coach. Don Matthews is my head coach, and I'm bored. Because Don is saying, John, this is Doug. Doug, this is John. Doug, this is your team. John, stay out of the way.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

And John's the offensive quarterback.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, John was it. So what I'm saying is, I had so much confidence. He let loose the reins. Let me be me. And I went and just played football and didn't worry about anything else. Um, that doesn't work for a lot of young guys. That doesn't work for a lot of the young guys on the team, but boy, it was great for me. But my all-time best coach was Tom Coughlin. From an X and O standpoint, taught me the most football I've ever learned in my life. And uh, God, I love him to death. He created my career for me, built my discipline, all that. He was my offensive coordinator back in college. Right. Tom Coughlin.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Went on to become the head coach at BC, and then the Giants, of course, Super Bowls.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

I want Tom Coughlin as my my offensive coordinator, and I want Don Matthews as my head coach.

SPEAKER_04 16:27

Some stories about Don Matthews.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

And we talked about this at dinner last night. The Don line, the thicker my wallet, the better looking I get. Who is the coach of the All-Station?

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Well, I'm going with another Don, Don Shuler, the only man who was a head coach of an undefeated season. And don't get me wrong, I hate to give coaches credit. Majority of the time, it's the players who deserve all the credit. But if you orchestrate an undefeated season on a professional level, you gotta, it's a lot of coaching involved with that. It's a lot of coaching.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

So I would go with Don Schuler. Don Schuller goes back to, I was a Baltimore, my parents were from the Baltimore area. I grew up a Baltimore Colts fan as a little kid. So he was he started it all back in with the Baltimore Colts. I remember him back to those.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

His son was my head coach, my three years with the Bengals. And I think he won the same amount of games in those three years in his father. I'm literally, and his father won and had one season. I think we won like 15, 16. And his father was what, 16 and over that year? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

So the I guess the the Apple fell far from the tree that time. Mike Chula was a quarterback for Alabama when Boston College we went down and upset Alabama at Alabama and came from behind and kind of kickstarted what was an amazing senior year for me. And Mike was their quarterback. And you know what the key to that game was? They were beating their butt, and their tailback, Carrie Good, was amazing, and he got injured. But they still felt like the game was under control. They were up by 17. And they put their freshman backup quarterback in for a series to get him some playing time, and he throws a pick, and it was on from there. We came back.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Away you go. So Don Shula over here. Don Matthews and Tom Coughlin. And Tom Coughlin. Absolutely. All right. So you now live in Florida, Doug. Full time. You're in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

And so your shoes are optional.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

I was gonna say, and and when we when we tape the show week after week, we always see the surfboard in the back. Like you like in retirement, surfing's kind of become your jam.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

It's just been a fun release. It's a physical activity, staying in shape, having fun, whatever, without beating myself up.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

And I love being out on the water. And I I my back's tight, my knees are swollen, so I can't really pop up. I'm on a stand-up all the time now. Stand up paddleboard catching waves.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

But um so is the pass rusher now the shark?

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Yes, yeah. Oh, definitely. They're the pass rushers. Sharks. No, I got a deal. I got a deal. I got a deal. We go to dinner. This guy's eating octopus, whatever. I'm like, I promise the shark. We we stood set the bar. Look, I don't eat you, you don't eat me. We got a deal. We're good, right? I don't eat any fish. Yeah, I don't even eat your friends. None. No, I'll no, I don't touch your friends. You guys are good. And that's what we do. We go out. You're out there with these sharks. It's the ocean. I need you to get legal on the surface. They live there. That's their mom. So we're during COVID. It was beginning of COVID, and the rest of the world shuts down. I'm living in the free state of Florida, so we're doing whatever the hell we want. And I'm sorry, free country of Florida. And it's his own country. So the guys are all surfing out. But so I go out back, and one day I paddle out, and one of the guys, hey Doug, how you doing? Yeah, just a heads up. There's a 10-foot hammerhead floating around. He's showing up. He still went out there. So I'm I'm paddling out. Yeah, yeah. I told you I got my deal. He signed it. They signed the deal. I don't eat them, they don't eat me. We're good. So I go out and uh I go, okay, yeah, no big deal, whatever. And sure enough, I turn and I paddle into my first wave. And being on a stand-up, you're already up. You don't have to do the pop-up thing. So I turn, I take the drop, and this fin, now, now this fin goes from heading from north or south to north across left to right, about 15, 20 feet out in front of me, it surfaces and it's just traveling a little bit that way. So I take the wave left instead of right. And you just and paddle, you know, turn back around, stay out there. During certain times of year, it's migration season, and we get a lot of black tip. We get the black tip in these spinner sharks that jump out of the water that migrate. And they're all, I mean, every 30 seconds to a minute, you see a shark jump out of the water somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 20:37

And you're still out there surfing?

SPEAKER_01 20:39

I got my deal. I set the deal out. I didn't sign a deal.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

How are you gonna get Steagall? It's not gonna happen. We'll get you down, we'll get you on a board. I got an aircraft.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

You have a swimming pool at your house, right? Yeah. We'll be serving in swimming. We've got to pool the pond. The pond be good for you. You could go pond, go out the pond with the gator. Okay, that's what's gonna happen. No, I just we gotta get you an aircraft carrier. We'll get you like a 12-foot stand-up paddle board.

SPEAKER_04 21:03

It's not gonna happen, duh. It's not gonna happen, I promise you. It's not happening.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

It's the studio sessions with the Hall of Famers. It's Flutie versus Stiegel. That's our quarterback. That's our receiver. We are powered by Ozun. We thank you again for making us one of North America's fastest growing podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Flutie versus Stiegel.