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Star flag football player Darrell Doucette believes he’s a better quarterback for the U.S. flag football team than NFL star Patrick Mahomes.
Doucette, who won gold for the U.S. at the 2022 World Games, made headlines last week when he claimed it was “disrespectful” to assume that NFL players would fill out the roster when the sport makes its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028. The 35-year-old added that NFL players “didn’t help grow the game” and that respect should be given to “the guys who helped this game get to where it’s at.”
Darrell “Housh” Doucette, quarterback of the USA national flag football team, called it “disrespectful” to assume NFL players will take Olympic team spots when his sport debuts at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
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In an interview with TMZ published Wednesday, Doucette explained how his comments weren’t meant to be dismissive of NFL players. He simply wants them to earn their spots the same way he did.
“I love the fact that they wanna play, and that they wanna come out and compete,” Doucette said during the video call, “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. I don’t want it to be like they’re entitled, because of their names, to be able to just automatically be on the team — and that’s what it sounds like from the flag football world.”
Doucette added that because of his familiarity with the sport, he’d able be a better QB for the flag football team than Mahomes would be.
“At the end of the day, I feel like I’m better than Patrick Mahomes because of my IQ of the game,” he said. “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.”
Doucette later sent a text to a TMZ reporter clarifying that he wasn’t saying he’s a “better overall player.”
“But until [Mahomes] steps on a 5v5 flag field,” he said, “I’m going to feel that way until it’s proven otherwise! I’m a competitor and need to be proven wrong.”
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