Flag football QB who said he’s ‘better than Patrick Mahomes’ leads U.S. to world title
Maybe Darrell Doucette isn’t delusional after all.
Perhaps the quarterback known as “Housh” was correct last week when declared that he’s “better than” Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes — at least when it comes to flag football.
Mahomes is a three-time Super Bowl champion and two-time NFL MVP. Doucette hasn’t played in the NFL but is a superstar in the flag football community, as he continued to prove last week at the International Federation of American Football Flag Football World Championships in Lahti, Finland.
Darrell Doucette, quarterback of the world champion U.S. flag football team, says Patrick Mahomes and other NFL stars shouldn’t automatically make the 2028 Olympic team for the L.A. Games.
In seven games, all blowout wins by the Americans, Doucette completed 66 of 78 passes for 1,163 yards and 27 touchdowns with no interceptions. He also rushed for three touchdowns and added another as a receiver. Defending champion U.S. defeated Austria 53-21 in Friday’s championship game.
Earlier this month, Doucette told the Guardian he feels it’s “disrespectful” to the flag football community to “automatically assume” that NFL players will be the ones to represent the U.S. when the sport makes its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
He elaborated last week in an interview with TMZ.
“We are fans of these guys, and like I said, we love the fact that they wanna go out and win the gold medal and represent the country, just like us,” Doucette said. “But we don’t want to be forgotten about because we are the ones who helped this game get to where it’s at.”
He also mentioned that he might be a better option at quarterback than Mahomes, one of several NFL players who have expressed interest in playing flag football at the Olympics.
The Southern Section will have sanctioned playoffs in four divisions with 265 schools competing this fall, up from 169. The City Section has 77, up from 52.
“I feel like I’m better than Patrick Mahomes because of my IQ of the game,” said Doucette, who led the U.S. to victory at the 2021 IFAF World Championship in Jerusalem, the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Ala., and the 2023 IFAF Americas Championship in Charlotte, N.C.
“I know he’s right now the best in the [NFL], 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.”
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