Amid the simmering excitement over flag football’s Olympic debut at the 2028 Games, U.S. team quarterback Darrell Doucette is staying on task.
Doucette recently escalated his previous criticism of NFL players who assume they will play for the U.S. Olympic flag football team in four years.
The 35-year-old spoke to TMZ Sports on Wednesday about why his IQ and experience in the sport make him ideally suited to lead the U.S. flag football team.
“I don’t hide from the competition, none of my teammates or anyone else in the flag football world hides from the competition,” Doucette said. “But at the end of the day, I feel like I’m better than Patrick Mahomes because of my IQ in the game. I know he’s the best in the league right now, I know he’s more accurate, I know he’s got all these intangibles, but when it comes to flag football, I feel like I know more than him.”
Doucette added that if Mahomes takes the time to learn and train for flag football, he “should be better than me.”
There would be a transition period, however. Doucette went into detail about how tactics in flag football differ from those in the NFL, citing the physical and defensive aspects as the biggest differences.
He also said that he believes the skills of NFL “elite” wideouts like Tyreek Hill and Justin Jefferson could potentially translate to flag football, but that he doesn’t want current flag football athletes to be overlooked.
“I think it’s great that (NFL players) want to play and compete and compete, but ultimately we want the same process,” Doucette continued. “We have to prove ourselves and so do they. I don’t want it to be like they have an automatic right to make the team because of their name, and that’s at least how it sounds in the world of flag football… We don’t want to be forgotten because we’re the ones who helped this game get to where it is today.”
Doucette has played a key role on the USA flag football team since 2020, helping the USA to a gold medal at the 2022 World Games and win the 2023 IFAF Americas Continental Flag Football Championship.
Mahomes, Hill, Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts are some of the NFL stars who have already expressed interest in competing in flag football at the Olympics.
“I think it’s disrespectful that they automatically assume that because of who they are, they can make the Olympic team – they didn’t help this game to prevail and make it to the Olympics,” Doucette said in response to an NFL video promoting flag football at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
