- The YouTuber has been documenting his career in professional football since 2017.
- He recently attempted to make an entrance, but suffered a broken neck.
- DailyMail.com provides the latest international sports news.
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
Donald De La Haye, the Costa Rican-American YouTuber and pro soccer hopeful, broke his neck while trying to make a tackle at a recent UFL game, 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 excelled as a kicker.
The 27-year-old Limón, Costa Rica native was trying to make a tackle on a kickoff against the Memphis Showboats on April 6, but seemed to drop his head too much. As a result, De La Haye made awkward contact with Memphis’ Trey Williams.
De La Haye did not appear injured on the play and instead ran off the field as if nothing was happening.
That all changed on Tuesday, when the Port St. Lucie product revealed the extent of his injury on social media.
Wearing a brace, De La Haye told young soccer players to practice a proper tackle.
“Thank you all for all the well wishes,” began De La Haye, who was photographed wearing a neck brace in the Instagram post.
“It turns out that in that inning, because of my bad form, I fractured my neck in a couple of places,” De La Haye continued. “Even though this sucks, I’m grateful because it all could have been bad.”
De La Haye then took the opportunity to remind children to learn proper tackling technique to avoid neck injuries.
Donald De La Haye attends the game between the Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics on April 5, 2023
“Children, please learn to board with proper form,” he wrote. ‘Thank you Brahmas and UFL for giving me this opportunity, it has been great. And thank you all for supporting me on this journey.
“I’m going to sit down now and focus on healing,” he concluded. ‘I love you all (sic).’
De La Haye first made a name for himself in 2017, when he violated NCAA rules against players profiting from his name, image and likeness (NIL). Those rules have since changed, but not until 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 the money I made, which is crazy,” De La Haye said in 2017. “I worked hard for it and all they want is for me to throw away my money and delete my videos, which, again, I worked very hard. hard and I didn’t feel comfortable doing it.
“So I told them no.”
UCF said in a statement that it requested and received a waiver from the NCAA that allowed De La Haye to continue making the videos chronicling his life on and off the football field. The exemption would have allowed De La Haye to continue making money from advertising videos of him, as long as they did not portray him as a student-athlete.
The waiver also required De La Haye to repay money he earned from the videos, although that amount was never publicly disclosed. When UCF began investigating the profits De La Haye was making from the videos in June, she had more than 55,000 subscribers.
Now it has 5.83 million.