Team USA flag football star wants opportunity to make Olympic team amid NFL participation

 

NFL players will be allowed to compete in the Olympics for the Team USA flag football team when the Summer Games hit Los Angeles in 2028.

Darrell Doucette III is already on the U.S. men’s national team as the team’s quarterback. The United States sat on top of the world flag football rankings last year.

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It is because of that success that Doucette said that he hoped he and his teammates would receive a shot to compete for a spot on Team USA with the influx of professional football players set to try out as well.

“The flag guys deserve their opportunity,” Doucette told The Washington Post in a recent interview. “That’s all we want. We felt like we worked hard to get the sport to where it’s at, and then when the NFL guys spoke about it, it was like we were getting kicked to the side. I felt like I was the guy who could speak out for my peers, for my brothers that’s been working hard to get to this level, for us not to be forgotten.”

Doucette added that he believed the team is good enough as it is to win gold in Los Angeles.

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“This is a sport that we’ve played for a long time, and we feel like we are the best at it and we don’t need other guys,” he told the outlet. “But we all have one goal in mind, and that’s to represent our country. We’re definitely open to all competition. If those guys come in and ball out and they’re better than us, hats off to them. Go win that gold medal for our country.”

The men’s national team has won the world championship five consecutive times.

NFL owners unanimously approved players’ participation in flag football during their meeting last week.

Doucette already ruffled feathers last year when he said he was better than Patrick Mahomes at the sport because of his “IQ of the game.”

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“At the end of the day, I feel like I’m better than Patrick Mahomes because of my IQ of the game. I know he’s right now the best in the league, 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 told TMZ Sports last year.

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

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