Who Is Deestroying? Meet the YouTuber Turned NFL Sideline Reporter

The season-opening showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers on Friday, September 5 in Sao Paulo, Brazil will stream on YouTube, and the game coverage will feature an influencer on the sidelines.

YouTuber Deestroying will serve as the sideline reporter for the broadcast alongside play-by-play man Rich Eisen and analyst Kurt Warner.

This will be a first for Deestroying, 28, whose real name is Donald De La Haye. Born in Costa Rica, he moved to the United States with his family at age 7, where he eventually became a college football player at the University of Central Florida.

While playing for the Knights, his YouTube channel exploded in popularity — something that both propelled him to fame and landed him in hot water with the NCAA.

In the years since, he has played pro football, become an esports gamer and continued making viral videos. Keep scrolling for more on YouTube’s new sideline reporter:

Deestroying’s YouTube Channel Has Over 6 Million Subscribers

Deestroying launched his channel in 2015, the same year he enrolled at UCF. He slowly grew it while playing as a placekicker for the Knights until the NCAA learned that he was profiting off the channel — something student-athletes were not allowed to do at the time.

Rather than deactivating or demonetizing his channel, Deestroying doubled down and continued to produce content. It cost him his college football career, but he had amassed nearly 100,000 subscribers by the time he graduated, posting everything from trick shot videos to athlete impersonations.

He has kept the channel going while pursuing his football playing career, becoming one of the sport’s most prominent faces on the Internet.

He Is a Pro Football Player

While Deestroying never made it in the NFL, he played one season in the Canadian Football League for the Toronto Argonauts and has played two more in the United Football League for the San Antonio Brahmas. He appeared in three games in the 2025 UFL season, making five of his seven field goal attempts.

Deestroying Went From Homeless to a Millionaire

After leaving UCF, Deestroying told GQ in 2023 that he was homeless and sleeping on a friend’s couch “for a bit.” The two of them began to pour time and energy into growing his YouTube channel and the money soon followed.

“My very first big check was like seven bands in a month,” he told GQ. “At the time, I’m thinking, what the heck? $7,000 and every month it just kept getting bigger. It went from 7,000 to 11,000, 14,000, 20,000, and s*** I don’t even know if y’all wanna talk about it, what it’s looking like now.”

When he hit $1 million, he said the first thing he did was pay down his mom’s house so she could retire.

“My mom actually sacrificed so much,” he said. “She took care of me, my brother, my sister. She worked hard to put food on the table, and the job she had, she didn’t love it, she just did it to pay the bills and whatnot. She’d spend long hours on her feet, she’d come home tired and still find the energy and the love to cook for us.”

He Played A Major Role in the College Sports NIL Movement

The controversy over Deestroying profiting off of his YouTube channel was one of several events that catalyzed NCAA’s eventual embrace of name, image and likeness (NIL) rights.

When the NCAA ordered him to demonetize his channel, Deestroying refused. As a result, he lost his athletic scholarship and spot on the UCF football team. He then sued the university, eventually settling in 2018 in a deal that allowed him to finish his education.

Less than one year later, California became the first state to introduce legislation that would let student-athletes profit off of their images, regardless of what NCAA rules say. Other states soon followed suit, and in 2021, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the NCAA did not have the right to keep its primary revenue-drivers (student-athletes) from profiting off of their likenesses.

He’s Also Known for His Impersonations

In addition to his stunts and trick shot videos, Deestroying is also well-versed in athlete impressions, including of Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill.