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Former kicker Donald De La Haye lost friends and supporters, who called him “crazy” among other things, after he chose his profitable YouTube channel over a D1 football scholarship at the University of Central Florida.
In 2017 — four years before the NCAA decided to suspend rules prohibiting athletes from selling their name, image and likenesses (NIL) — De La Haye made national headlines for refusing to demonetize or delete his YouTube channel at the NCAA’s request due to his student-athlete status.
After “countless meetings” with the UCF Compliance Office and “back and forth” conversations with the NCAA, De La Haye refused to agree to the “unfair rules and conditions” proposed by the NCAA, one of which he said required him to give up the money he had made from his monetized YouTube videos.
De La Haye ultimately forfeited his scholarship, and walked away from the football program at UCF to pursue his content creation career full time. When he made the decision, he gained over 30,000 YouTube subscribers and earned thousands more followers on Instagram.
Today, De La Haye has 3.5 million YouTube subscribers, and 1.4 million Instagram followers. He now says he makes millions of dollars per year between social media, YouTube ads and sponsorships.
Upon hearing about the NCAA NIL rule change, De La Haye told The Post he felt “a sigh of relief.”
“Now [college] athletes have a means to take care of their people and take care of themselves… Now these athletes can use their hard work and grind that they’ve worked their butts off for years and they can earn some money and give back. It opens up a whole new world and I’m really excited to see all of the positives and benefits that come from this rule change.”
De La Haye joined YouTube in 2015, under the name “Deestroying.” His videos showcased his life as a collegiate athlete and quickly caught the attention of hundreds of thousands — leading to ad revenue and a booming social media following — which the NCAA took issue with under its former policy.
“It was hard. It was no walk in the park. I’ll admit I cried a lot those nights trying to figure out what was best,” De La Haye said about the “six-week process” in which the NCAA “investigated” his online presence.
Though, his UCF teammates, in similar positions, understood his decision.
“My teammates were like, ‘Go get your bag bro. We are out here struggling, doing all this work and we’re not getting paid. We’re proud of you. S–t you’re lucky you’re getting out,” he said. “They were talking about [the NCAA] like it was jail.
“Even parents coworkers would be like, ‘Is your son stupid? He just gave up a full scholarship for a Youtube channel?’ I would have all these people DMing me [on social media] saying, excuse my language, ‘You’re a f–king idiot.’ All types of crazy stuff,” De La Haye said, remembering the “negative” reactions to his decision.
To this day, De La Haye doesn’t see what he was doing “wrong” by posting videos to YouTube just “doing what I’m passionate about” and having “innocent fun.”
“I knew it was ridiculous when I went to the beach with my girlfriend at the time and we were just tossing the football back and forth, having fun, just enjoying ourselves and [the school] wrote me a letter saying, ‘Hey, you can’t do this because you’re a student athlete, you can’t throw the football. They literally wrote that on the document: ‘Throwing a football at the beach with his girlfriend. He can’t do that.’ It just blew my mind.”
It’s hard not to wonder what what would have happened if De La Haye complied with the previous NCAA laws. Would he have been drafted to the NFL out of college? That’s a question he doesn’t spend time thinking about now that he has built an internet empire using his football talent.
De La Haye went on to play in the Canadian Football League [CIL], but explained in a July 2019 YouTube video that things didn’t work out. He was signed to the Toronto Argonauts practice squad and never got a chance to play or start.
That same month, De La Haye dominated fellow YouTuber Logan Paul in Paul’s Challenger Games in California. The Costa Rican kicker won the 100m race in an impressive 10.8 seconds against Paul.
Today, De La Haye has millions of followers across multiple platforms that tune in to watch his football-inspired videos, featuring up-and-coming athletes and NFL pros he calls friends. He works with a “solid team” of videographers and editor to create football events and competitions all over the United States.
His monetized YouTube videos and Instagram content also features wide receivers Tyreek Hill (Chiefs), DeAndre Hopkins (Cardinals), free agent quarterback Cam Newton, retired Super Bowl champion Reggie Bush and more.
De La Haye developed his own athletic apparel brand, The Eleven, and recently signed with Playmaker — a representation company that helps athletes monetize through endorsements, brand partnerships and merchandise opportunities. Corey Clement, who was released by the Giants on Tuesday, is one of many pros on Playmaker’s roster.
Playmaker CEO Brandon Harris told The Post his company will be working with De La Haye on “endorsements, sponsored posts and in person signings, to original content series, merchandise collaborations, podcasts, growth of social channels and more.”
De La Haye has also taken calls from ESPN about possible content creation opportunities with the network.
After the long-awaited NCAA NIL rule change, De La Haye is motivated to help collegiate athletes profit off their NIL.
“I want to start an agency that helps these students navigate this [post NCAA rule change] world the right way — something small, nothing crazy,” De La Haye said. “We’re not going to sign 200 athletes, but something boutique so that kids who trust me and my journey, will trust my advice to help them.”
On July 1, the NCAA NIL rule change went into effect, and De La Haye has been getting messages from collegiate athletes ever since.
“My DMs are non-stop these days. People are asking me how to make money, how do they tackle the new rule, how do they move on and navigate through this whole new world we’re living in,” he said.
“Everything happens for a reason, and I had to kind of bite the bullet so that my peers could do what they do now. I’m glad I did that because I’m living a phenomenal life now and now student athletes can also live a phenomenal life.”
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