Anticipation is building for flag football, a new sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. The event will take place before the start of the 2028 NFL season, giving current professional players the opportunity to compete in a flag football tournament.
The idea that NFL players become part of a team as soon as they step on the field is A promotional video released by the league this month The show, featuring Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, doesn’t sit well with flag football champion and U.S. national team quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette.
In fact, he went so far as to say he felt the video was a threat to his job.
“I think it’s disrespectful for them to automatically assume that because they’re human they can make the Olympic team. They’re not contributing to growing the sport to get to the Olympics.” Doucette said in a recent interview.“Respect the players who have made this game what it is. … You don’t expect them to go on the field and make the Olympic team because of their name, right? They still have to go on the field and compete.”
[Related: Jalen Hurts named Olympic flag football ambassador for 2028 Summer Games]
More recently, Doucette said the transition to flag football won’t be easy for Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes and other players because “they’ve never played it.”
“At the end of the day, I feel like I’m better than Patrick Mahomes because of my game IQ,” Doucette said in an interview. TMZ Sports.
Mahomes himself responded to the chirps with a playful response.
Doucette, 35, led the U.S. National Team to the 2021 IFAF Men’s Flag Football World Championship title, a gold medal at the 2022 World Games and a championship at the 2023 Americas Flag Football Championship, where he earned MVP honors.
Team USA has won gold medals in five (2010, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021) and silver once (2012) of the 10 IFAF World Championships since the competition began in 2002. The 11th biennial tournament will be held later this month, Aug. 27-30, in Finland and will feature 32 men’s and 23 women’s teams from six continents.
The United States, ranked number one in the world in both the men’s and women’s tournaments, will compete in Group A.
That being said, how likely is it that an NFL player would actually want to compete in the Olympic Games?
Caleb Williams, the first overall pick in April’s draft and new quarterback for the Chicago Bears, was recently captured on “Hard Knocks” saying he’s interested in wearing a Team USA uniform when the U.S. national team competes in the 2028 Olympic Games.
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow As mentioned above I wanted to play with you Current teammates Ja’Marr Chase and former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson. “I’d love to play on the Olympic flag football team,” Burrow said. “I think it’d be really cool for me and my friends to be out there playing football.” Burrow added that it would be “embarrassing” if the U.S. didn’t win a gold medal in the first Olympics where flag football is played.
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