USA flag football quarterback Darrell ‘Housh’ Doucette has challenged Patrick Mahomes to beat him out for a spot on the 2028 Olympic flag football team, with the lesser-known passer boldly claiming he’s the ‘better’ player in the format.
With flag football making its debut at the 2028 Games, many have assumed that the USA would simply assemble a squad of the best NFL players for their men’s squad, and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was also featured in a post-Paris promo video.
Doucette, at least, is not on board with that plan and took a bit of a dig at the Chiefs star Mahomes in a new interview.
‘At the end of the day, I feel like I’m better than Patrick Mahomes because of my IQ of the game,’ he told TMZ. ‘I know he’s right now the best in the [NFL]. I know he’s more accurate. I know he has all these intangibles. But when it comes to flag football, I feel like I know more than him.’
He added, ‘I’m not saying I’m a better player overall but until he steps on a 5v5 flag field, I’m going to feel that way until it’s proven otherwise! I’m a competitor and need to be proven wrong.’
Darrell ‘Housh’ Doucette believes he is a better flag football QB than Patrick Mahomes
Many fans have assumed that the Olympic squad will be made up of NFL stars like Mahomes
Doucette, 35, added to TMZ that he believes a squad of NFL stars would lose to his USA team, which won the 2022 World Games.
The flag game is played on a shorter and more narrow field and features just five players on each side, while many of the highlight reels Doucette has posted online feature him running from out of the pocket rather than passing.
Regardless, he just wants him and his teammates to have a fair shot of making the Olympic team.
‘I love the fact that [NFL players] wanna play, and that they wanna come out and compete,’ he said. ‘But at the end of the day, we want the same process that we’ve been having to play – we have to try out. And so do they. ‘
He added that NFL players should not be ‘entitled’ to a place on the Olympic squad.
‘We’re fans of these guys,’ he continued. ‘…But we don’t wanna be forgotten about because we are the ones that helped this game get to where it’s at. ‘
Doucette’s latest remarks come after he blasted NFL players for being ‘disrespectful’ in assuming that they could just join the Olympic squad due to their high profiles.
Following the Paris Olympics, even the NFL itself promoted that idea, with the league’s official account sharing a video of Hurts lighting the flame at the LA Memorial Coliseum by throwing an on-fire football.
‘It’s our turn to light up the LA28 Olympic Games,’ the NFL captioned the video.
Doucette would later tell The Guardian, ‘I think it’s disrespectful that they just automatically assume that they’re able to just join the Olympic team because of the person that they are – they didn’t help grow this game to get to the Olympics.
‘Give the guys who helped this game get to where it’s at their respect.’