Super Bowl LX won’t just feature rising NFL stars like Drake Maye and Jaxon Smith-Njigba — it will also spotlight personalities who have ascended to the top of the social media, music, and sports worlds. The setting for that showcase will be YouTube‘s annual celebrity flag football game, which will return with star-studded rosters that will take the field ahead of the 2026 Big Game.
Instagram Live standout Druski, who has already palled around with NBA stars, will make waves on the gridiron as one of the team captains for YouTube’s flag football game. The man opposing him in that schoolyard-style pick ’em will be J. Balvin, the reggaeton hitmaker who was part of the Super Bowl halftime show in 2020.
Druski and J. Balvin will be joined by a powerful list of players
YouTube’s past flag football games have provided opportunities for collaboration between digital content creators and traditional sports stars, and the 2026 edition of the event is no exception. Participants will include creators like Deestroying and Jesser, musicians like Benson Boone and Kane Brown, flag football stars Diana Flores and Ashlea Klam, and NFL legends Cam Newton and Michael Vick.
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“I’m hyped for the NFL flag football game during Super Bowl weekend,” Druski said in a statement. “I won MVP of my middle school church flag league for the most pass breakups in a single game, so I expect to bring a similar amount of intensity to the field on February 7th.”
Though the 2026 flag football lineup has plenty of star power, the two teams will have to put on quite the show to top last year’s game. That matchup drew six million live views on the official NFL YouTube channel. Such is the power of Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed.
YouTube also gets another chance to show off its football broadcasting chops
When the Google-affiliated hub first partnered with the NFL for a creator flag football game, it hadn’t yet acquired the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package. Since inking that deal, YouTube has been eager to show that it’s ready to build a bigger presence in the NFL world.
That’s why, at the onset of the current NFL season, YouTube hosted its first exclusive stream of a regular-season game. The result was a broadcast that looked completely different from previous NFL coverage, for better or for worse.
Some of the personalities who participated in that broadcast, like Deestroying and Newton, will return to the field for the upcoming flag football game. YouTube will get another chance to prove how influential its creators can be within the world of sports, and simulcasts on the channels of participants Deestroying, Jesser, and Pierson Wodzynski will help prove that point.
Expect creators and social media platforms to be ubiquitous during Super Bowl LX weekend
The flag football game is a great cross-promotional opportunity, but recent Super Bowls have shown us just how big creators have become. Their star power can no longer be contained within a single event — they’ll also appear in ads and alternative broadcasts, so get ready to explain Druski to your parents.
Meta, for example, has enlisted iShowSpeed and former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch for a Super Bowl spot that will promote its smart Oakley sunglasses. Meta is hoping to continue riding the momentum its wearables have generated, and I can only assume Lynch is there so that he won’t be fined.
