| | Associated Press
PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills quarterback Doug Flutie
will be out until at least September after suffering a severe groin
injury when he slipped in practice Thursday.
"He's going to be out quite a while, probably into the regular
season," coach Wade Phillips said after learning the result of an
MRI. "We don't know the timetable yet, but it's a severe injury."
Flutie said he felt as if he had just lost a game.
|  | | With Flutie out of commission, the Bills have few options at quarterback. |
"It could be a lot worse. Of course it could've been a couple
of days, too," he said. "But I'm not missing hopefully too much
of the season. Just take it from there."
The toughest part, he said, will be allowing the injury to heal,
which means giving it weeks of rest.
"Right now, it's going to be an exercise of patience for me,
which is what I'm not good at," said Flutie, who couldn't recall
ever missing a day of training camp in his 16-year pro career. "I
don't know what else to say except that it's going to be a real
challenge for me to just be patient and wait."
The injury occurred when Flutie, taking a snap from center,
appeared ready to run the ball up the middle, but the turf gave out
under his right leg. Flutie went down face-first and grimaced in
pain while holding his leg.
"I was just running a quarterback draw, drop step and went and
it just gave way," Flutie said. "I thought it was just a nagging
pull thing, but I guess not."
He got up on his own after less than a minute, and did not
appear to limp as he walked off the field to the trainers' room.
Flutie's injury came the day that starting quarterback Rob
Johnson made his first appearance at practice since Monday. Johnson
has been battling a stomach virus that forced him to miss three
straight days.
Johnson did not participate in Thursday morning's practice,
instead watching from the sidelines. He probably won't be ready until
Friday, Phillips said.
Johnson picked up the bug over the weekend and required
antibiotics to be delivered to his room 2:30 a.m. on Monday.
Noting that Johnson has lost some weight, Phillips said, "We
don't want to throw him back too quickly and have a reoccurrence."
While recuperating, Johnson left the Bills training camp
facility at St. John Fisher College in Rochester to travel to
Buffalo where team doctors conducted a full series of tests,
Phillips said.
Johnson did not comment after the morning practice.
"Our quarterback depth has been depleted here pretty quickly,"
Phillips said. "Like at any other position at camp, we're still
going to work the things that we need to work offensively without
them. ... But we'll have to come back and recover that again with
them when they get back."
The Bills are down to two quarterbacks: Mike Cawley, who is
attending his second straight camp with the Bills after spending
this past year playing in NFL Europe; and rookie free agent
acquisition Phil Stambaugh, a three-year All-Patriot League
performer at Lehigh.
"This'll be a good opportunity for Cawley and Stambaugh. In
that respect it gets them a little more work," Philips said.
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 Doug Flutie describes his injury.
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Wade Phillips doesn't expect to see Doug Flutie back until the regular season.
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