

Five months where we would wake up every day and make videos. A friend who lived in a one bedroom apartment in Orlando at the time told De La Haye he could crash on his couch. "I had to move out two days after I made the decision," De La Haye said. Instead, he had to either give up his burgeoning and potentially lucrative online audience or his football scholarship and everything that came with it. In the current college football landscape, De La Haye's video-making endeavor could have made for another feel-good NIL story: a kicker by day, vlogger by night. "At the time, football, schoolwork, it was all a grind, it was stressful and straining. "I cried a lot," De La Haye said of the decision. In a world before name, image and likeness, De La Haye was forced to choose: football or YouTube. The NCAA, and by extension UCF, was not having it. The channel was growing in subscribers, and that meant in revenue too, however small. He had started a YouTube channel even before entering college, populating it with everything from vlogs and reactions to commentaries and skits alongside his friends while slowly building an audience. In the span of a few weeks, De La Haye had gone from having a customary college athlete story to having a unique one. Then again, he wasn't UCF's kicker anymore.

De La Haye, a kicker for the University of Central Florida, was not.

They were used to coming to parties like this one.
#How do you make youtube videos play without stopping professional
All around him, professional athletes, coaches, power brokers and other celebrities mingled with an aura of belonging. He glanced to his left and saw former NFL running back Eddie George. He looked to his right and saw former NBA star Paul Pierce and NBA coach Ty Lue. NEARLY FIVE YEARS ago, Donald De La Haye tried to blend into unfamiliar wallpaper as he shuffled quietly through a party at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles.
