DAriel “Hush” Doucette, a quarterback for the U.S. national soccer team, couldn’t help but feel offended by the controversial video that went viral shortly after the conclusion of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

the section In 2011, a video showed NFL quarterback Jalen Hurts lighting a football, throwing it into the torch towering above Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and lighting the Olympic flame. The Philadelphia Eagles players then turned, looked into the camera, and said, “Our turn,” before text reminded viewers that men’s and women’s soccer—a younger cousin of the tackle form in which Hurts plies his trade—would make its debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

Sitting in a coffee shop near his hometown of New Orleans recently, Doucet said the only way he could explain the video was to threaten his job. Herz appeared to be announcing his intention to call the signals for the United States, the defending world champion soccer team, at the upcoming Summer Games.

But Dossett has made it clear he has no intention of simply relinquishing the status he has earned for himself, in relative (but fading) obscurity, in a distinctly different version of football that he has spent years spreading to other countries.

“I think it’s disrespectful for them to automatically assume that they can make the Olympic team just because they’re people — they didn’t help grow this game to get to the Olympics,” Doucet said. “Give the guys who helped this game get to where it is their respect.”

Doucette says he can accept that American football superstars are trying to take a roster spot from him and his teammates, who are equally as glamorous as they are dreaming of winning a gold medal. He just wants to make sure Hurts and others like him know that American football heroes won’t go down without a fight.

“We don’t think they’re going to be able to walk on the field and make the Olympic team because of the name, do we? They still have to go out on the field and compete.”

Doucet’s comments were among the first to throw cold water on the idea of ​​the NFL fielding a Dream Team for the flag’s debut that would be similar to the NBA’s Legends team that debuted at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Hurts wasn’t the only one throwing his helmet into the ring. In an episode of the training camp documentary series Hard Knocks, Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, the No. 1 pick in April’s draft, expressed interest in throwing for Team USA in Los Angeles — the same city where he won the Heisman Trophy for college football’s best player while at Southern California.

Two weeks before the opening ceremony in Paris, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow appeared on the Pardon My Take podcast and imagined winning football gold with his friends and NFL stars Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson. “I really want to play for the Olympic football team,” Burrow said, echoing similar statements from MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill, the all-time leading receiver. “I think it would be really cool.”

Doucette admits that under different circumstances, he would have rooted for an all-star team led by Burrow. Like almost everyone else in New Orleans, he was thrilled to watch Burrow, Jefferson and Chase lead LSU’s football team to a national college championship in 2019. He even lives near the high school where Chase began making a name for himself on the football field.

But Dutchett is confident that he, and players like him around the world, can outplay the best players in the NFL.

Whether he was catching the ball to run it or passing it, Doucette led the United States to the 2021 World Championship in Jerusalem, where the United States defeated Mexico in the final 44-41. It was the United States’ fourth consecutive World Championship title.

Dossett then helped the national team win the gold medal at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. In the summer of 2023, he was named Most Valuable Player as the United States went 7-0 to win the Pan American Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.

He and the United States are scheduled to travel to Lahti, Finland, to advocate for their interests. World Championship Against 31 teams from six continents in a four-day tournament that starts on August 27.

But above all that, Doucette has perhaps the most notable win of his career. In 2018, he led an amateur team to a championship, beating a team made up of former NFL players.

The former pro team included Pro Bowl running back Justin Forsett and former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Seneca Wallace. Their coach was four-time Olympic gold medalist running back Michael Johnson. They lost by 20 points to a Doucette-led team that outdid the pros not only with speed but also with things that aren’t exactly standard in a tackling game: double passes, lateral tackles, shifty hip movements and throws disguised as runs.

in Unforgettable sequenceDutchet was playing defense when he stopped a player four yards from the goal line on a long catch-and-run attempt that looked like an easy goal. Dutchet’s team then intercepted a Wallace pass and ran the ball back for a 100-yard touchdown, capping the game with a stunning lateral jump downfield and backflip across the goal line.

the victory Dossett’s team won a $1 million prize and named itself the Cancer Fighting Team in honor of their loved ones battling the disease.

reflection On that dayThat was perhaps the clearest evidence, Doucet said, of how different 11v11, with pads and helmets, is from the 7v7 version, where defenders try to stop ball carriers by grabbing flags at their hips.

“Some of the things they do in the NFL that they call trick plays? We’re used to seeing that on a daily basis,” said Doucette, who got his nickname “Hooch” from his resemblance to former NFL player TJ Houshmandzadeh.

Doucet, 35, admits his path to the national team was unconventional. The son and namesake of a former New Orleans police officer charged with murder The investigator Known to fans of the true crime documentary series The First 48, Dossett He used to run and play football when he was young.

One of his early competitive successes was winning a state championship in bowling. He did not play football at the college or professional level because he was shorter than the prototype for his preferred position of midfielder, at 5 feet 7 inches.

His passion for soccer was sparked by an intramural league at Xavier University in New Orleans, where he attended. Since then, he has proven not only that he has the skill to be selected as a “starter” in the men’s professional league, but also that he has the ability to play in the national team. american football league The section was initially scheduled for launch in 2025 With teams in Dallas, Nashville, Boston and Las Vegas.

He has also coached and run courses abroad for other science enthusiasts, including in China and Mexico – whose second-ranked team hopes to beat him in Finland.

Dossett’s achievements on the pitch, as well as those of female sensations Diana Flores From Mexico and Vanita Krush The United States has seen a similar increase in social media influence and followers.

Dutchet has hinted at plans to unveil a line of Hush-branded merchandise, especially if the world championships go the United States’ way.

He feels there is a market for the game among the vibrant soccer stars he belongs to. But he also knows that appearing at the Olympics — in front of a global audience — could lead to a new soccer stardom he cannot yet imagine.

Doucette made it clear that he doesn’t feel he deserves the move. However, he firmly believes he deserves the chance to fight for those ambitions against all comers, including those with a proven track record in the NFL.

“It’s not that we need these guys, because we’re already great with the ones we have,” Doucette said of the league’s Olympic candidates.