With the 2028 Olympic Games just a few years away in Los Angeles, all eyes are on the new sports coming to Los Angeles. One of them, flag football, is generating particular excitement, as this quintessentially American sport will make its Olympic debut in just four years.
While fans are excited about the idea of Team USA fielding an all-star NFL team, current USA flag football quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette has something to say about it. Interview with The Guardian Posted Saturday, Doucette said NFL players hoping to land an easy roster spot might not find it so easy.
“We don’t think they can walk out onto the field and make the Olympic team just because of name alone, right?” Doucette told The Guardian. “They still have to go out and compete.”
Doucette disagreed with a promotion A video released by the NFL shows Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and NFL flag football ambassador Jalen Hurts lighting the Olympic torch with a flaming football and telling the camera, “It’s our turn.” According to The Guardian, Doucette believed Hurts was indicating his desire to play, but Team USA already has a quarterback.
Other NFL quarterbacks, including Joe Burrow and Caleb Williamshave also said they would like to play on the Olympic team. Doucette said he can expect players to want to try their luck on the team, but they shouldn’t take those spots for granted.
“I think it’s disrespectful that they automatically assume they can make the Olympic team just because of who they are; they didn’t help this sport grow to get to the Olympics,” Doucette said. “Let’s give respect to the guys who helped this sport get to where it is.”
For years, the NFL has lobbied hard to have flag football included in the Olympics, in part as a way to give the sport a more global reach. As a result, flag football was officially added to the LA 2028 program, along with baseball/softball, cricket, lacrosse sixes and squash as additional sports in Los Angeles.
Flag football will be played in both men’s and women’s competitions at the 2028 Olympic Games. Team USAThe U.S. men’s team has won five of the last six world championships; the U.S. women’s team is also very successful, winning the last two world championships in 2018 and 2022.
Doucette, 35, has had success with Team USA, helping the team win a world championship in 2021 in Jerusalem, a gold medal at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, and a continental championship of the Americas in 2023, where she won Most Valuable Player honors.
He was also a member of an amateur team that, in 2018, defeated a team of former NFL players on national television. Doucette led the team to a 20-point victory over the NFL team, which included running back Justin Forsett and former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Seneca Wallace, and was coached by Michael Johnson, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field.
According to The Guardian, Doucette’s success in that 2018 game was largely due to the team’s speed, as well as the ability to perform feints and lateral passes in a way that tackle players weren’t accustomed to. As a result, NFL players hoping to join the flag football team might find it difficult to adjust to the game, especially with a team of players who have been playing the sport for years.
“It’s not like we need these guys,” Doucette told The Guardian, speaking of NFL players hoping to be Olympians. “Because we’re already great with the ones we have.”
Doucette and the U.S. team will soon travel to Finland for the World Championship 2024where they will defend their title starting on August 27 in a tournament in which 31 other nations will participate.