Anticipation has been building for Olympic flag football, the newest event in the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Given that the event will happen before the start of the 2028 NFL season, the opportunity exists for current pro players to take part in the flag football tournament.
The notion that NFL players will step on the field and immediately be integral parts of a roster — which was alluded to with the hype video that the league dropped this month featuring Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts — doesn’t sit well with flag football champion and quarterback of the U.S. national team, Darrell “Housh” Doucette.
In fact, he went as far as to say that he felt like the video was a threat to his job.
“I think it’s disrespectful that they just automatically assume that they’re able to just join the Olympic team because of the person that they are — they didn’t help grow this game to get to the Olympics,” Doucette said in a recent interview. “Give the guys who helped this game get to where it’s at their respect. … We just don’t think they’re going to be able to walk on the field and make the Olympic team because of the name, right? They still have to go out there and compete.”
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[Related: Jalen Hurts named Olympic flag football ambassador for 2028 Summer Games]
Doucette, 35, has helped Team USA win the 2021 IFAF Men’s Flag Football World Championship, claim gold in the 2022 World Games and win the 2023 Americas Continental Flag Football Championship en route to earning MVP honors.
Team USA has won gold in five of the 10 IFAF World Championships (2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021), along with one silver (2012), since the tournament’s inception in 2002. The 11th biennial event will take place in Finland later this month, August 27-30, and includes 32 men’s and 23 women’s national teams from six continents.
The United States, which is ranked No. 1 in the world in men’s and women’s, will compete in Group A.
That said, what are the chances that NFL players will actually want to take part in the Olympic event?
Newly minted Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, the first overall pick in April’s draft, recently said he’d be interested in suiting up for Team USA when they participate in the 2028 Games in a moment captured on “Hard Knocks.”
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has also previously mentioned that he’d want to play alongside current teammate Ja’Marr Chase and former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson. “I really want to play for the Olympic flag football team,” Burrow said. “Me and my friends out there playing football. I think it’d be really cool.” Burrow also added that it would be “embarrassing” if the U.S. failed to win a gold medal in the first Olympics in which flag football is played.
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