Team USA Flag Football QB Clears Stance on NFL Players’ Olympic Participation After Outplaying Joe Burrow & Co.

When the NFL owners unanimously voted in May 2025 to allow players to participate in Olympic flag football, Darrell Doucette didn’t celebrate. The quarterback for Team USA told reporters the community he’d spent his life building felt “kicked to the side.” Since then, Doucette had made it a point to highlight the difference between flag football and tackle football. So after Team USA went 3-0 against Joe Burrow, Tom Brady, and company at BMO Stadium, Doucette had to face the obvious question.

“Do you feel, Darrell, that you proved that you should be the representative for the Olympics and no NFL players, current or past, are necessary to win a gold?” Rich Eisen asked on his show.

Doucette offered a measured response to the question.

“I’m not going to say that,” Doucette said. “Everyone wants to win gold for our country, but we just didn’t want to be overlooked. We didn’t want the names to overshadow the guys who have been playing this game. It was never NFL versus Team USA versus flag football players. It was more like, “Let us get our opportunity, let us get our shine, and let’s compete together.”

“It was never NFL versus Flag Football players.”

U.S. National Flag Football Team member Darrell Doucette joined the @richeisenshow to give his reaction to playing against NFL players pic.twitter.com/46lvjmpvnj

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 23, 2026

The restraint in that answer is the whole story. Back in 2024, Doucette had called the idea of NFL stars filling Olympic roster spots “disrespectful.” That same year, he had gone on record noting he would be a better flag football player than Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Cut to 2026, and Doucette had issued a challenge to the NFL stars in a phone interview, urging them to go all in for the Classic.

“You guys better give 100% because we’re going to give 100%,” Doucette said. “Don’t underestimate us.”

But now, it looks like Darrell Doucette has taken a different route altogether. After the Fanatics weekend, Doucette cleared the air on his comments on Mahomes and gave a powerful statement in the process. 

“I made some remarks that were totally misconstrued and misunderstood,” Doucette said. “All I was speaking of was giving my brothers a fair chance to make the 2028 [Olympics]. We came out this weekend with that on our mind to say, “Let’s show these guys that we are talented, that we are flag football and not to be overlooked by anyone in the world.”

That Mahomes’ claim was never about Mahomes. Nor were all those jabs at the NFL stars as a whole. For Doucette, it was all about a community watching its Olympic moment get reframed around someone who had never played a down of competitive flag football. And the Classic was the perfect place to make his case.

The score that made the argument

Darrell Doucette didn’t just compete at the Fanatics Flag Football Classic; he dismantled it. He finished 8 of 8 passing for 67 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed six times for 76 yards and three rushing touchdowns and capped it all off by hauling in five passes for 79 yards. Six touchdowns, three wins, tournament MVP; This was Doucette’s loudest statement.

Team USA scored on 14 of their 15 drives and outscored the opposition 106-44 across three games. In the round-robin, they defeated the Wildcats (led by Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels) 39-14 after establishing a 19-6 lead at halftime. As for Brady’s Founders, Team USA outscored them 24-0 in the first half, completed every pass thrown, and won 43-16.

The championship rematch with Joe Burrow and the Wildcats was notably tighter, but Doucette scored three touchdowns to close it 24-14.

Overall, only Jayden Daniels, Odell Beckham Jr., and DeVonta Smith seemed like good flag football fits. It was even a milestone to watch Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski play together again. But Gronk notably pulled his hamstring early in the matchup. As for the rest of the NFL stars, they struggled with ripping flags and got penalized multiple times for being too physical.

Retired linebacker Luke Kuechly (who played for the Wildcats) did not sugarcoat what he’d experienced:

“Their skill set was very different than anything we’ve ever seen in the NFL,” Kuechly said. “The speed, the quickness, the ability to create space—our inability to put our hands on those guys—made the game very difficult.”

Team USA wasn’t just competitive; they were simply better. That’s the case Darrell Doucette has spent two years trying to make in words, and it’s finally been settled in one weekend on the field.

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