As NFL training camp gets underway, a YouTube star is delivering his own challenge to athletes in ten cities. Donald De La Haye, the former college football player known online as Deestroying, has partnered with the NFL for an expansion of his 1ON1 series.
In 1ON1, De La Haye takes to the gridiron to battle amateur and professional football players in mano-a-mano challenges. His opponents have ranged from random people off the street to NFL All-Pros like Tyreek Hill. To compete against those athletes, De La Haye draws on his own football experience. He played collegiately for the University of Central Florida, where he challenged the NCAA’s decision to make him choose between his scholarship and his YouTube channel.
The NFL-backed version of 1ON1 will begin during the week of July 17. Across a ten-day span, De La Haye will visit five NFL cities — Denver, New Orleans, Washington, Buffalo, and Minneapolis — where he will put local wide receivers and defensive backs through “multistage competitions.”
Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories
The fun will continue when the NFL regular season kicks off, with De La Haye heading to Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Nashville, Seattle, and London. At each of his ten stops, he’ll crown two wide receivers and two defensive backs as 1ON1 winners. Those 40 standouts will face off at the 2024 NFL Pro Bowl, where “the ultimate 1ON1 competition” will take place.
“I cannot wait to bring the 1ON1s on its first global tour with the NFL, as we invite the best local athletes to come out and show what they got,” De La Haye said in a statement. “To use my platform and the NFL’s to spotlight these talented players, while also inviting the 1ON1 all-stars to The Pro Bowl Games, where the best in the NFL will also compete, is a dream come true.”
This is not the first time De La Haye has teamed up with the most-watched sports league in the world. He was one of the YouTube stars who got a chance to attend the most recent NFL Draft in Kansas City. As part of his appearance, he hung out with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who gave him a behind-the-scenes tour of the proceedings.
The changing nature of football media will continue to create opportunities for De La Haye and his ilk. YouTube and the NFL have established a strong relationship since the former company acquired the coveted NFL Sunday Ticket package for the upcoming season. That’s good news for influencers like De La Haye; the 26-year-old Costa Rica native will host his upcoming 1ON1 episodes on his YouTube channel.
