Actually he may be a good comparison. He couldn't get a starting job in the NFL because he was said to be too short. He became a Hall of Famer in Canada and then was a starter in the NFL at an age when most QBs are retired. I'll always wonder what he could have done in the NFL in those intervening years. I think he played well enough during his second NFL run to at least dispel the height concerns.
1. He signed with the USFL out of college and didn't even make it to an NFL training camp until a couple of years later.
2. He was drafted by the Rams but his rights were traded to Chicago. He made his debut in 1986, but he was basically Chicago's fourth-string QB behind Jim McMahon, Mike Tomczak and Steve Fuller.
3. Flutie was traded to New England in 1987. The NFL players went on strike that year, and Flutie crossed the picket line to play for the Patriots.
4. He disappeared to the CFL after the 1989 season and put up great numbers there. A small, mobile QB can have a great career in that league.
5. He came back to the NFL at the age of 36 in 1998 but never did anything exceptional. He only had two years where he started (1999 with Buffalo and 2001 with San Diego), and one thing that stood out about him is that he threw a lot of interceptions for a guy that didn't pass for a ton of yards.
It would have been interesting to see him as a starter for his entire NFL career, but I'm guessing there's a reason why he never got much interest in the league early in his career.