Flag Football Star QB Says He's Better Fit To Lead Team USA Than Patrick Mahomes

A current flag football star quarterback believes he's a better fit to lead Team USA in the 2028 Olympics than Patrick Mahomes ... and he tells TMZ Sports the only way he'll think otherwise is if the three-time Super Bowl champion proves it to him on the field.

The confident signal-caller's name is Darrell "Housh" Doucette ... a 35-year-old righty who helped lead the U.S. national flag football team to gold at the 2022 World Games.

If his name sounds familiar ... it's because earlier this week, he made national headlines -- when he claimed it was " disrespectful " that a lot of NFL stars are currently believing they can displace some flag footballers and go for gold on their own at the Los Angeles Games in four years.

Doucette told us in an interview Tuesday he feels his words were a bit misconstrued ... and all he was trying to say was he simply wants NFLers to have to try out and earn their spots on flag rosters -- just like he did.

PATRICK MAHOMES ON THE FIELD

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That being said, though, he did say he's sure he's better suited to lead the U.S. flag squad in '28 than Mahomes is.

"At the end of the day," Doucette told us, "I feel like I'm better than Patrick Mahomes because of my IQ of the game."

He later added in a text message, "I'm not saying I'm a better player overall but until he steps on a 5v5 flag field, I'm going to feel that way until it’s proven otherwise! I'm a competitor and need to be proven wrong."

While it might sound crazy -- check out some of Doucette's highlights ... it's clear the flag game definitely differs from the one Mahomes plays on Sundays.

The field is shorter and more narrow ... and the competition is only 5-on-5. According to Housh, there's almost no physicality either -- and it takes a special skillset to know how to guard flags from being pulled.

"This is a totally different game," he said.

Doucette is so confident of that -- he told us he believes if a squad full of NFL stars took on his flag team ... the NFL players would lose.

Now, Doucette says that all could change if the guys took it seriously and trained their asses off -- but he's making it clear, he and his squad mates won't give up any potential Olympic roster spots without a fight either way.