By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK, Aug 11 (Reuters) – The United States will keep their foot on the gas in their flag football world championship title defence this week, with the sport’s 2028 Olympic debut raising the stakes – and bringing a bigger spotlight – to the sport’s global showpiece.
The men’s and women’s championships in Duesseldorf, Germany, serve as the first Olympic qualifying event for the sport, with the top two finishers in the men’s and women’s competitions – excluding the United States – qualifying directly.
The United States already have their spot confirmed as the Olympic hosts but are looking to underline their claim as the preeminent powerhouse.
“Everyone is going to go out there and give a little extra effort now that it is in the Olympics and the other countries want to qualify,” said starting quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette.
“But we are also going to have our foot to the gas as well.”
At five feet, seven inches, Doucette stands far shorter than the average NFL quarterback – but has led the U.S. to world titles in 2021 and 2024.
The national team also crushed two squads stacked with NFL players at the inaugural Flag Football Classic in March, upending a common assumption that NFL players would be preferred over flag veterans in 2028.
“The doubters, it just makes me go out there and compete a little harder,” Doucette told Reuters. “I don’t necessarily do it for them, but it also is a feel-good type of thing when you can say, ‘Hey, they’re saying this’. All right, well, let me show them muscle.”
The U.S. men’s team open their campaign on Thursday against Israel.
‘A NEW MOMENTUM’
The sport has spread rapidly across the United States since it was announced as an Olympic sport in 2023 – particularly in the women’s game – with players taking up a non-violent form of tackle football that has long dominated American sports culture.
In June 2025, 12 states had sanctioned girls football as a school sport, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. That number has climbed to 23.
For 20-year-old Maci Joncich, the sport’s Olympic inclusion feels like payoff for a risk she took playing a sport that once had few opportunities for women.
She became the youngest-ever member of the U.S. national team when she was 17 and in June featured in a Nike campaign, throwing tight spirals to the NFL’s five-time Pro Bowler Ja’Marr Chase.
“Not only do I have this Olympic goal in the back of my mind with literally everything I do, but that’s the same with younger girls who may have played flag football in the past and there was never really an avenue for them,” she told Reuters.
The U.S. women are expected to collide with longtime rivals Mexico after kicking off their campaign on Thursday against Australia.
“Because of the history of the sport, because of American football that’s been established for so long, it seems like countries, they want to beat the USA,” said Joncich.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New YorkEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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