YouTube will broadcast its first live NFL game in the Friday night slot on Week 1 when the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs visit Brazil. And they will make their mark by featuring one of their own on the broadcast in sideline reporter Donald De La Haye, better known to the world as Deestroying.
As reported by Andrew Marchand at The Athletic, Deestroying will join Stacey Dales as a sideilne reporter for YouTube’s upcoming NFL broadcast debut. The game is being produced by NBC Sports and will feature Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner in the broadcast booth and Terry McAuley as the rules analyst. The studio will feature a mix of new and veteran personalities with Kay Adams hosting and being joined by Cam Newton, Derek Carr, Brandon Marshall, Tyrann Mathieu, and fantasy sports content creator Peter Overzet. Carr and Mathieu are notable in that both just recently retired from the NFL as members of the New Orleans Saints.
But lest we just think this is a gimmick for YouTube to connect with Gen Z or even Gen Alpha and face complaints from Boomers who are wondering what the heck a Dee Stroying actually is, the creator does indeed have legitimate football experience.
Donald De La Haye was a D-I kicker at Central Florida and first rose to prominence in 2017 when he crossed paths with the NCAA over his popular YouTube channel. Instead of buckling to NCAA demands to demonetize his channel, De La Haye chose to stick with YouTube and a career in content creation. Reading that sentence now in an era of Name, Image, and Likeness shows how ridiculously backwards the NCAA treated its athletes for decades. The move worked for Deestroying where he currently has over 6 million subscribers on YouTube.
But De La Haye didn’t totally give up on his football career. Most recently, the kicker got a shot with the San Antonio Brahmas of the UFL. After a neck injury in 2024, he was 3-5 on field goals in 2025 with a career long of 55 yards.
It’s a win-win for both YouTube and the NFL. YouTube gets to feature a content creator which will give a unique slice of the video platform on what could be its biggest stage yet. And the NFL gets to reach younger fans by having a creator with legitimate football experience involved in the game broadcast. iShowSpeed must be in shambles.
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