- The YouTuber has been documenting his professional football career since 2017
- He recently attempted a tackle but suffered a broken neck
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
Donald De La Haye, the Costa Rican-American YouTuber and professional football hopeful, broke his neck while trying to make a tackle in a recent UFL match, the 27-year-old announced.
Known online as “Deestroying,” De La Haye has documented his journey from Central Florida to the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts and the UFL’s San Antonio Brahmas, where he recently started as a place kicker.
The 27-year-old native of Limón, Costa Rica attempted to make a tackle on kickoff against the Memphis Showboats on April 6, but appeared to hang his head too low. As a result, De La Haye made difficult contact with Memphis’ Trey Williams.
De La Haye did not appear injured during the game and instead ran off the field as if nothing was wrong.
That all changed on Tuesday, when the Port St. Lucie product revealed the extent of his injury on social media.
With a beck brace, De La Haye told youth football players to tackle the right way
“Thank you for all the well wishes,” began De La Haye, who was pictured wearing a neck brace in the Instagram post.
“It turns out that I broke my neck in a few places on that tackle due to poor form,” De La Haye continued. “Even though this sucks, I’m grateful because it could have all been bad.”
De La Haye then took the opportunity to remind children to learn the correct approach technique to prevent neck injuries.
Donald De La Haye attends the game between the Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics on April 5, 2023
“Children, please learn proper form,” he wrote. “Thank you Brahmas and UFL for giving me this opportunity, it was great. And thank you all for supporting me on this journey.
“I’m going to sit down for now and concentrate on healing,” he concluded. “I love you guys (sic).”
De La Haye first made a name for himself in 2017, when he fell foul of NCAA rules against players profiting from their name, image and likeness (NIL). Those rules have since changed, but only after the NCAA ruled De La Haye ineligible and UCF revoked his scholarship because he made a small profit from his YouTube channel.
“They wanted me to give up my money that I made, which is insane,” De La Haye said in 2017. “I worked hard for it and you just want me to throw my money away and delete my videos, which again, I I worked so hard for it and I didn’t like doing it.
“So I said no.”
UCF said in a released statement that it applied for and received a waiver from the NCAA, allowing De La Haye to continue making the videos that chronicle his life on and off the football field. The exemption would allow De La Haye to continue making money from the ads for his videos — as long as they didn’t portray him as a student-athlete.
The release also required De La Haye to repay the money he made from the videos, although that amount was never publicly disclosed. When UCF started looking at De La Haye’s profits from the videos in June, he had more than 55,000 subscribers.
He now has 5.83 million.