UCF kickoff specialist Donald De La Haye recently got quite a bit of attention on one of his YouTube videos when he notified his subscribers (and the world) that the NCAA told him he would either have to quit making monetized YouTube videos or quit college football.
De La Haye chose to leave college football behind.
While this decision might seem very controversial to plenty and will leave questions about his future in football (if there indeed is one), De La Haye left the door open in his video to playing football in the future. He also was did his best to remain honest with himself and maintained that going from kickoff specialist to the NFL would be quite the leap as many NFL teams don't have a kickoff specialist but just rely on the kicker or punter to do the job.
De La Haye also mentioned another athlete who took a year off of college football — albeit not voluntarily— and has had success in the NFL: Tyrann Mathieu.
Of course, there are differences — Mathieu was already viewed as an extremely talented safety/cornerback before losing his junior year to a suspension at LSU whereas De La Haye may not have been on the radar of many NFL teams — but it does show that football can certainly be in the future of the UCF kickoff specialist.
In the time between his vlog detailing the NCAA warning and meting considering his YouTube channel and his announcement that he would be leaving the Knights, he put up a parody video titled (COLLEGE SPORTS) BE LIKE.. in which he made fun of the entire situation that many college athletes may feel from the NCAA. In the description, he even wrote "This isn't just about me anymore, it's about all of us athletes."
Currently, De La Haye has over 74,000 subscribers, having gained around 10,000 since Deadspin first wrote on his situation with the NCAA.
Source: youtube.com/watch?v=kRinrwFLiM8
