Donald De La Haye

Donald De La Haye (born December 2, 1996), also known online as Deestroying, is a Costa Rican-American YouTuber and former kicker in college football. He played college football at the University of Central Florida. De La Haye is known for his videos demonstrating his kicking ability as well as his sports-related skits and vlogs talking about his life journey. He also made news while in college when the NCAA banned him for profiting off his name, which has sparked reform for student athlete compensation.[1]

Donald De La Haye
De La Haye before the Argonauts' season opener in 2019.
Born: (1996-12-02) December 2, 1996
Limón, Costa Rica
Career information
CFL statusAmerican
Position(s)Placekicker
Punter
Height5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight171 lb (78 kg)
CollegeUCF
High schoolPort St. Lucie (FL)
Career history
As player
2019Toronto Argonauts*
*Offseason and/or practice roster member only
Career stats
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2015–present
Genre
Subscribers2.59 million (Deestroying)
407K (KD Family)
Updated June 15th, 2020

Early life and college career

De La Haye immigrated with his family from Costa Rica to the United States at the age of seven, spending the rest of his youth in Port St. Lucie, Florida.[2] He played for the football team at the University of Central Florida as their kickoff specialist from 2015 to 2016. De La Haye was a marketing major at UCF.[3][4]

Loss of NCAA eligibility over YouTube channel

In 2017, De La Haye drew notable attention when the NCAA told him to delete or demonetize his YouTube Channel in order to stay on the football team, as the NCAA forbids its athletes from profiting off their athletic ability aside from their scholarships. He was also not allowed to have his likeness or name in any of his videos if he decided to continue the channel. Faced with this dilemma, De La Haye ultimately chose to continue his channel normally, at the cost of his scholarship and NCAA eligibility.[4][5][6] De La Haye sued UCF over this matter in July 2018, settling in November 2018 to finish his education there.[7][2][8]

De La Haye's case has been one of several incidents in which NCAA athletes are barred from profiting off their names, images, and likenesses. Legislation has since been issued in a few states, including California and De La Haye's home state of Florida, in an attempt to allow student athletes to profit while in school.[9][1]

YouTube career

While kicked off the UCF football team, De La Haye put more focus on his Deestroying channel, which he started as a teenager in 2015. Evolving from skits on football stereotypes and kicker trick shot videos, the channel has also featured gaming videos, skits impersonating National Football League players such as Odell Beckham Jr., Tom Brady and JuJu Smith-Schuster, actual collaborations with players such as Smith-Schuster, Marquette King, Cam Newton, and Antonio Brown, and partnerships with the NFL and other sports organizations to create content. The channel has since surpassed 2 million subscribers after having just 94,000 when De La Haye left UCF.[10]

De La Haye has also collaborated with other YouTube personalities such as Logan Paul, competing in the latter's "Challenger Games" in July 2019.[11]

Professional gridiron football career

After years of advocating for an NFL team to sign him through his videos, De La Haye was signed by the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League on May 19, 2019.[12][13] The signing resulted in over 15,000 new followers on the Argonauts' official Instagram account.[14] He appeared in both preseason games, making his one field goal attempt from a distance of 16 yards, and recording one punt for 46 yards. De La Haye was signed to the practice roster to begin the season.[15][14] Due to limits on American players allowed on the roster, the Argonauts later placed De La Haye on the Suspended list in order to allow him to be free of team obligations and continue to upload videos consistently, which generates more income than being on the practice squad.[16][17]

Without De La Haye, Toronto's kicking game for 2019 proved to be chaotic; starting kicker Drew Brown was cut after 3 games in which he went 3 out of 5 on field goals, and shanked a punt to set up a game winning rouge by the BC Lions. Replacement Tyler Crapigna went down with injury late in the season, causing punters Zackary Medeiros and Ronnie Pfeffer to step into duty, where they went a combined 2 out of 5, including 29 and 22 yard field goal attempts that both missed during a three point loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the season finale.[18] De La Haye was released on February 7, 2020.[19]

References
  1. "UCF kicker Donald De La Haye invoked as DeSantis backs college athletes getting paid". orlandosentinel.com. October 24, 2019. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
  2. Henneke, Robert; Riches, Jon (November 16, 2018). "Attorneys: UCF's De La Haye settles for a bright future off the field". orlandosentinel.com. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
  3. "Donald Delahaye Bio". UCFKnights.com. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  4. ""A college football player has a hit YouTube channel. He might have to give it up to remain eligible." (June 12, 2017). USA Today". Archived from the original on November 25, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  5. Deestroying (July 31, 2017). I lost my full D1 scholarship because of my YouTube Channel. YouTube. Archived from the original on January 12, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  6. ""Ex-college football player Donald De La Haye signs with Whistle Sports" (Aug 18, 2017). CNBC". Archived from the original on April 3, 2019. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  7. Kirshner, Alex (July 13, 2018). "How the YouTube kicker's lawsuit challenges the NCAA". SB Nation. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
  8. De La Haye v. Hitt, 6:18-cv-0135 (M.D. Fla. 2018).
  9. "NCAA to consider allowing athletes to profit from names". SI.com. Retrieved October 1, 2019. Last year, a kicker at UCF gave up his scholarship rather than stop making money off his profitable YouTube channel, which threatened to make him ineligible.
  10. James Loke Hale (January 31, 2019). "YouTube Millionaires: NFL Hopeful Donald De La Haye Was Forced To Choose Between YouTube And Football — But Now He Aims For Both". www.tubefilter.com. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  11. Leskin, Paige. "Logan Paul is holding a race on Saturday to find the fastest YouTuber, and the winner gets $100,000. Here's who is competing". Business Insider. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  12. "Argos add five to training camp roster". Toronto Argonauts. May 19, 2019. Archived from the original on May 19, 2019. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  13. Deestroying (May 22, 2019). I GOT SIGNED TO A PRO FOOTBALL TEAM YESTERDAY. YouTube. Archived from the original on May 26, 2019. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  14. Beede, Jason (June 25, 2019). "Ex-UCF kicker Donald De La Haye has no regrets after choosing YouTube over Knights, earns spot in CFL". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  15. "Toronto Argonauts announce final roster cuts ahead of deadline". Tip of the Tower. June 9, 2019. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  16. "Transactions". CFL.ca. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  17. Deestroying (July 22, 2019). THE TRUTH ABOUT MY PRO FOOTBALL CAREER.. (WHY I'M NOT PLAYING). YouTube. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  18. "Toronto Argonauts vs Hamilton Tiger-Cats". CFL.ca. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  19. "Argos release 12 players". Toronto Argonauts. February 7, 2020.
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