Flag football quarterback Darrell Doucette believes he's a better player than Patrick Mahomes.
On Wednesday, Doucette sat down for an interview with TMZ Sports, where he discussed his skills in the sport and its debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Doucette, who is a part of Team USA, said his skills are so elite that he's better than Mahomes.
"I'm not hiding from the competition, none of my teammates nor anybody else in the flag football world are hiding from the competition," said Doucette. "But at the end of the day, I feel like I'm better than Patrick Mahomes because of my IQ of the game. I know he's right now the best in the league, 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."
He added that if Mahomes puts in the work these next four years, the two-time NFL MVP will be better than him. Flag football rules are slightly different than the NFL, but Mahomes is still a three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback and a proven wizard in getting the ball down the field. Regardless, Doucette stated he wanted the selection process to be fair and that everyone should have to try out to join the team.
"I love the fact that [NFL players] want to play and that they want to come out and compete, but at the end of the day, we want the same process," said Doucette. "We have to try out, and so do they. I don't want [it] to be like, they're entitled because of their names to be able to just automatically be on the team, and that's what it sounds like from the flag football world… We don't want to be forgotten about because we are the ones that helped this game get to where it's at."
Since 2020, Doucette has been an essential piece in the flag football world as he helped Team USA win a gold medal at the 2022 World Games and the 2023 IFAF Americas Continental Flag Football Championship. When the NFL shared a promo video celebrating flag football's inclusion at the 2028 Summer Games, Doucette was one of the first to speak his mind on players like Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and more, showing interest in playing for the team.
"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 added.
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