140-Pound Flag Football Star Is Ready To Battle NFL Players For Olympic Roster Spot

We recently got a big piece of news that a lot of people were pretty fired up about: NFL team owners voted to allow players to compete in flag football at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The thought of seeing NFL all-stars lining up against the Danish National Flag Football Team is hilarious, and if we're lucky, we'll get to see it.

However, not everyone was pumped about the announcement, especially not Darrell Doucette III, regarded by some to be the best flag football player in the world.

According to The Washington Post, Doucette has quarterbacked Team USA to four straight flag football world championships and has won every single international game he has appeared in.

He's a flag football lifer, having picked up the sport at age 8 without ever playing tackle football, but he's going to have some competition when it comes to making the Olympic squad.

"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," the 5-foot-7, 140-pound Doucette said. "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."

He raises an interesting point. It'd be interesting to see how NFLers compare to the guys who have been flag football-in' for decades in some cases. 

Flag football star Darrell Doucette is eyeing a potential showdown with NFL players to make the Olympic roster. (Photo by Leslie Plaza Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Sure, NFL players are freak athletes, but maybe the flag football vets have some applicable skills that tackle football players don't.

This isn't the first time Doucette has spoken about the situation. He received some attention last year when he talked about his belief that he had a better "IQ of the game" than Patrick Mahomes.

"The flag guys deserve their opportunity. That’s all we want," he said. "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."

We've got a few years to go before the flag football competition kicks off (if they even have kickoffs – they may not, I'm not sure) in LA, and it's going to be interesting to see how it all unfolds.