NFL players should not automatically get Olympic spots, says US flag football star

In the run-up to flag football's debut at the 2028 Olympics, the participation decisions of the NFL's top stars – from Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts to Tyreek Hill and others – will attract a lot of attention.

However, a current player on the U.S. men's national soccer team doesn't want full-time flag football players to automatically lose their spots.

“I think it's disrespectful that they automatically assume that they can make the Olympic team because of who they are – they didn't help put this game in the Olympics,” quarterback Darrell Doucette III told the Guardian. “The guys who helped put this game where it is today deserve respect.”

Doucette, who is listed as quarterback and center on the U.S. men's team's roster for the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championship in Finland later this month, won the 2021 edition of the tournament in Jerusalem before leading the team to titles at the World Games the following year and the Americas Continental Flag Football Championship in 2023.

After defeating Mexico by four points in last year's title game, Doucette won the game's MVP award, according to the USA Football website.

But since it was announced that the sport had been nominated as one of the new entrants to the 2028 Olympic Games in Paris – along with baseball, softball, lacrosse and others – it has been seen in a different light.

Mahomes said last November that he would “definitely” like to take part in the event if it works out. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Dolphins star wideout Tyreek Hill and Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams have also expressed interest in possibly playing in Los Angeles in the summer, according to the Guardian.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was also recently featured in an NFL-sponsored flag football commercial, where he threw a football toward the Los Angeles Coliseum and said, “It’s our turn.”

But in Doucette's eyes, Hurts and the other stars may have to work to displace current national team members from their roster spots.

“We just don't think they're going to make it to the field based on the name to make the Olympic team, right?” Doucette told the outlet, adding that “we don't need those guys” to complete their roster.

“They still have to go out and compete,” he said.