It’s never too late to jump on the Deestroying bandwagon. But traditional sports fans unfamiliar with his work may have to meet the more than six million fans who follow him religiously on YouTube. The platform has been instrumental in building a hugely successful and profitable creative outlet for athletes and influencers over the past decade.
Destroy–real name Donald De La Haye – has consistently proven that sports can be even more fun than what you’re used to seeing on game days. His videos both challenge and collaborate with an All-Pro lineup of athletes and influencers on his YouTube channel, putting on uniquely entertaining, highly athletic competitions. His success has also given him the luxury of traveling all the way to New Zealand to train with that country’s top athletes.
A deeper look at De La Haye reveals that the former University of Central Florida kicker helped change the game of college football as we know it. His decision to forego his scholarship to pursue his then-fledgling social media channel helped usher in the current NIL era, allowing college athletes to earn huge amounts of money.
“I love my life,” he says. “Everyone has their own trials and struggles, but I have so many positive, wonderful things going for me. I am fortunate, extremely blessed and overall extremely happy.”
What looked like a Big gamble in 2017 seems like a no-brainer now.
Thanks to the success of his channel, Deestroying has been able to get a real taste of professional football as a kicker. But last September, both old-school and social media-savvy football fans got their first real taste of Deestroying as the NFL’s sideline correspondent for the exclusive YouTube broadcast of the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil.
His popularity has expanded his brand beyond sports. Destroy has gone from hitting field goals to becoming a hospitality entrepreneur and partner in a few Phoenix areas Fat Tuesday Restaurants.
“I’m blessed to be able to just show up, obviously, to advertise, help with marketing and use my brand,” he says.
And while it’s highly unlikely that the cameras will stop rolling on the newly engaged social media star anytime soon, the increasing demands of content creation may have him quietly thinking about what comes next for the 29-year-old. After announcing that he and his fiancée are expecting a child, Deestroying could be quietly plotting his exit strategy on social media to spend more time at home. It would also give him some extra time to pursue his newfound passion for golf a little more.
“It’s kind of ironic because the older I get now, the less interested I am in having my whole life on social media,” he admits. “So I think the biggest challenge is keeping everything going, keeping the fire and passion going for social media and content, which I love. But at the same time, I’m an adult. I’m engaged, so real life comes out.”
While many of his YouTube drops are overly fun to watch, Deestroying still gives not-so-subtle hints of his intense workout routine that allows him to continue to physically tax his body as he develops into a successful businessman. As part of a recent one Allstate campaignhe kicked 1,000 40-yard field goals in less than 24 hours – a task that emphasized the athleticism required to be a kicker.
Behind the scenes – whether in his decked out home gym, on an athletic field or in a hotel gym – Deestroying continues to work hard to continue showcasing his skills to his millions of fans. According to him, this will not end soon.
“I’m obsessed with just exercise and fitness. I have been since I was 14. So if I go two or three days without the gym, I don’t feel like myself.”
Destroy
Inside Deestroying’s Garage Gym Grind
A day in the life of Deestroying, he says, makes it almost impossible to keep a regular schedule. From constant flights, to late nights filming, to waking up and reading and answering a huge amount of emails, to planning the next athletic challenge to be filmed – and still finding time for family – sticking to a routine has become as challenging as reporting on Tyreek Hill one-on-one.
“I usually plan the night before, depending on what’s coming up,” he says.
Finding time to train, even if it is a challenge, has become an undeniable part of Deestroying’s success blueprint. While you see the finished product on social media, you don’t always see the work behind the scenes – and that starts in the weight room.
Destroying has been proudly showing off his newly designed and fully equipped garage gym to his YouTube fans lately. Nike barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells, along with a smart Tonal gym, fill one side of the room as he shows viewers what it takes to maintain a hectic, unpredictable athletic schedule. “You just gotta keep the machine running, man.”
He says he normally sticks to a five- to six-day split routine: upper body on the first day, lower body on the next, followed by a rest day. While his videos are groundbreaking, his work in the gym is based on proven fundamentals. He cycles through bench presses, barbell shoulder exercises, chest flyes, skull crushers and lots of rows.
He emphasizes keeping each repetition slow and controlled to increase time under tension. He says this approach helps build strength and durability, enough to last a full day on the field. The results of the grind, he insists, are worth the punishment in the weight room.
“It’s just the worst day of the week, but it’s the best day of the week,” he says of Leg Day. “I just do that one and rotate and take a break for a day and then start again.”
His training routine is a further extension of the work that requires more substance than style to excel in the long run – a message he tries to convey to younger athletes and wannabe influencers. Do the work, no matter the challenges, and good things will follow.
“My problems are different from everyone else’s,” he says. “It’s about how you deal with it. It’s about how you show up every day and don’t let life beat you and just show up with a positive attitude.”
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Deestroying, once an Outcast Kicker, became a record influencer
Although Texas quarterback Arch Manning will earn an estimated $7 million by 2026, he is just one of many college athletes benefiting in part from the path Deestroying helped open when he chose YouTube over college football. The NCAA ruled him ineligible in 2017 because he refused to demonetize his channel, which at the time had fewer than 100,000 followers.
Now he’s in the heart of Sun Devil country in Tempe, Arizona, with one of his two Fat Tuesday Locations, it’s easy to forget that before the early controversies, Deestroying was a standout kicker in the Sunshine State. After his college career at UCF was cut short, he had a brief stint with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL and played two seasons with the San Antonio Brahmas of the UFL. He briefly showed a glimpse of what might have been: hitting a 55-yard field goal in the second quarter against the Michigan Panthers that went another 10 yards beyond the uprights. But a broken neck in a tackle in his first season, followed by a groin injury the following season, effectively ended his professional career.
“It was kind of an unfortunate professional career, but at the end of the day, man, I’m blessed and lucky,” he says. “I’m happy that I can enjoy sports here.”
Ten years after his dominance on YouTube, Deestroying is still finding new ways to not only create unique content, but also show off his amazing expertise. A recent Allstate campaign set the bar high: 1,000 field goals from 40 yards in 24 hours. The volume, he says, required mobility and patience, and it gave him a chance to show that all the work in the weight room helps dispel the idea that kickers aren’t elite athletes.
“It’s very heavy in the groin. It’s a lot of movement in the groin all the time,” he says. “So your groin and hip flexors are definitely going to hurt.”
True to his style, he built an experience around the stunt – from midday grills to blow-up mattresses, portable cold bathtubs and massage tables – to break the mental monotony of, well, a thousand consecutive flights of stairs. “I mentally realized that it would be very redundant and repetitive, and I just had to find a way to distract myself somehow.”
A spinning wheel provided extra entertainment for the fans, but extra punishment for him: gassers, push-ups and even barefoot kicks. As the hours piled up, so did the pain: sore groin, tight hip flexor, back pain, leg cramps, blisters, swollen feet. Being ambidextrous helped; he switched to his left foot when the right became too painful.
By the end of the night, he finished with 1,001 field goals. Ultimately, he says, mental preparation was just as important as leg strength. “I’d be pretty mad at myself,” he says of a bad play. “I should just take a breath, take a step back, regroup and keep telling myself, ‘How many years have you been doing this? This is easy. Just join in and take care of business.'”
One golf match more important than viral views
His YouTube channel has been viewed more than 1.6 billion times. Since launching it more than a decade ago, he has worked with a host of NFL stars, including Cam Newton, AJ Green, Marquette King and this year’s No. 1 draft pick, Travis Hunter. In New Zealand he has trained with top rugby star Ardie Savea, while back home in the US he has toured the locker rooms of almost every major college football program.
Perhaps his biggest athletic challenge is sitting across from him at Sunday family dinner. With his recent engagement, Deestroying not only gains a life partner; he also inherits an enthusiastic father-in-law who loves to play golf and is eager to beat him on the course whenever they get the chance.
It’s a job he takes just as seriously as competing against other influencer athletes, like Logan Paul, whom he defeated in a 2019 race, a blistering 10.8 in the 100 meters.
“We went golfing, and I was terrible,” he says. “It didn’t feel good to see this guy every time and just talk trash about something he cares about so much. So I put a little time into it. I bought a few clubs, went out and got bit by the bug. I was hooked. I was playing golf like 10 hours a day at one point, and the bug is real.”
The obsession was equal parts pleasure and frustration, but once you see the work Dee puts in and the results that come from it, you know there’s no stopping it. Although the switch from Topgolf to the PGA seems like an option, it is not completely ruled out for the time being. And perhaps that is Deestroying’s ultimate strategy. “I always joke and say, in five years I’m going to be a professional,” he says. “But who knows if that joke will come true?”
