CHULA VISTA, Calif. — A few weeks before USA Football went off to defend its world championship title in Düsseldorf, Germany, the team's most recognizable player and top star wasn't the first one on the field. In fact, on this sunny and crisp morning in Southern California, Darrell "Housh" Doucette was one of the last players to begin warm-ups. But Doucette still commanded the attention of his USA Football teammates.
Donning tinted visor shades with a navy-blue USA headband pressed over his braided head, Doucette leaned in to share a few words of wisdom with a teammate as they began to stretch. Doucette worked to get his 37-year-old sinewy frame warmed up for what awaited in a practice led by head coach Jorge Cascudo, aptly nicknamed the Godfather of flag football because of his 20-year involvement in the sport. "They call me the Godfather, but he’s the face of flag football right now," Cascudo told me when I asked about Housh.
"What makes him special is that he is not only a quarterback; he’s an athlete. He’s a receiver and can also rush — he can do anything. And with his experience, he’s just a winner across the board.
"He’s just good with the ball. And wherever we put him, he’s special. He’s a ‘dawg’.
He’s humble, he’s confident and he’s a great team player. And for him, all that matters is winning." Doucette and USA Football were on a heater when I visited their practice in July. Doucette had just led USA Football to a thoroughly dominant title in a four-team tournament filled with current and former NFL players in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic in March, winning all three games against NFL players by a combined score of 106-44.
Doucette took home MVP honors, throwing three touchdowns, running for three more and catching five passes. That heater nearly came to a halt this past weekend, though. The USA surprisingly lost for the first time in 14 years, falling to American Samoa in pool play, 38-32.
Luckily for USA Football, it was able to get that bump in the road out of the way early. It ultimately won its sixth world title with a convincing win over Italy in the gold medal game on Sunday, picking up a 46-26 victory. Doucette won MVP of the tournament, scoring four touchdowns in the gold-medal game, and is now 36-1 in his career with USA Football.
Doucette's path to becoming the best flag football player in the world might not be conventional, though. The New Orleans native is an avid bowler, saying it helps with his mental focus and consistent approach. But Doucette is no slouch as an athlete either.
He was a track athlete in high school who ran a personal-best 10.4-second time in the 100. Doucette told me he picked up flag football during his time at Xavier University in Louisiana, earning the nickname Housh because the ponytail he rocked at that time reminded teammates of former Cincinnati Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
"I’ve met him and he’s a cool guy," Doucette told me about the original Housh. "It’s not a bad name to follow. He’s cool with it.
I’m like, ‘What’s up, Real Housh?’ and he’s like, ‘What’s up, Housh.’" A Michael Vick fan growing up, Doucette said he wears the No. 7 in his honor. Like Vick, Doucette has always been a speedster on the field, running a 4.3-second, 40-yard time back in his younger years.
But he’s made it a point of emphasis to take care of his body, as he will be 39 years old when the Olympics roll around in two years. Doucette generated headlines nationally when he said that he was a better quarterback than Patrick Mahomes at flag football. Now, two years removed from those remarks, after the world got an up-close look at Doucette and the rest of USA Football dominating against NFL players, Doucette feels vindicated, but again reiterated he meant no shade to Mahomes.
"For me, it wasn’t about me or him," Doucette told me when I asked about the Mahomes comments. "It was about giving my brothers throughout the flag football world an opportunity to compete in the Olympics, because we were already written off. So, it was like, ‘Hey, we’ve been doing this for a long time, and this is a sport that we gave our heart to.
And don’t take something from us that we helped to grow.’ "USA Football told us it was going to be an open competition and if those guys come out, we’re going to come out and compete. And I think that’s what Fanatics was all about, to have an opportunity to compete against those guys and show our level of competitiveness against superior talent." Ja’Deion High, a former Texas Tech receiver who played with Mahomes in college, said he understood what Doucette was trying to say — flag football and tackle football are different. But Doucette's defiant comments are yet another example of the type of energy he gives USA Football on the field.
"He’s just quick and twitchy, man," High told me. "He’s small and he gets low to the ground. It’s hard to pull his flag.
He’s a baller. He wants to come out and compete every day, and he don’t care about no talking. Come out there and show what you’re about." However, NFL players are coming to flag football sooner rather than later.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's presence at the world championships was a sign of that, attending the tournament over the weekend. Goodell has been a major proponent of the NFL growing flag football globally. Former NFL player Marcel Reese, senior adviser for football strategy and operations for USA Football, told me that he and USA Football CEO Scott Hallenbeck are in the preliminary stages of putting together a strategy for how to handle NFL players trying out for the USA Football team for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Reese told me they have already received over 150 official inquiries from NFL players who want to try out, with several others Reese has talked to in the league who say they are interested. That jives with players like Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who said during the Fanatics event that he would love the opportunity to compete for his country. "We will announce that process at the right time," Reese told me.
"There are so many very, very good players – the best football players in the world — who are interested, eager and excited to represent their country. … and we are going to do whatever we can to get them ready for that process." Reese went on to say that USA Football is working with Goodell and Troy Vincent, executive director of football operations for the league, along with NFLPA and other stakeholders. "It’s going to be a fun process," Reese told me. "We want to make sure that we are turning over every single rock to make sure we are doing the right things, and that we are operating efficiently and effectively.
It’s going to be a very intentional process. And we’re going to put the best team forward to hopefully entertain everyone and dominate in LA28." "I’m really interested when 2028 comes to see which NFL athletes and former NFL athletes are interested in trying out," Cascudo added in our conversation. "That would be really cool to have the best of the best there, competing with the best flag football athletes that we have to know that we have the best in the U.S. coming for those 10 spots.
That’s something we’re looking forward to."
