Kansas City Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Andy Reid, will go head-to-head with the Los Angeles Chargers, featuring Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh, in Friday night’s game that’s easily accessible to Brazilian viewers.

It’s the first NFL game streamed on YouTube and there will be plenty of unique elements surrounding the broadcast.

The league and YouTube have assembled a lineup of content creators to enhance the viewing experience.

Cam Newton, Brandon Marshall, Derek Carr and Tyrann Mathieu will be part of a pre-game and post-game shows hosted by Kay Adams.

Donald De La Haye, widely recognized as “Deestroying” by millions online, will take on the role of a sideline creator rather than the traditional sideline reporter.

Four content creators will lead their own “Watch With” sessions on YouTube and YouTube TV — with IShowSpeed and Tom Grossi providing English commentary, and Robegrill and SKabeche offering Spanish broadcasts.

Deestroying expressed excitement about his journey: “It’s been incredible. From covering high school and JV games to now at the highest level, the fact that a sideline creator role has emerged is amazing. It’s brand new for everyone involved, be it YouTube, the NFL, or myself, but it promises to be fantastic, and I believe we’ll see much more of it in the future.”

Despite stepping into a new role, Deestroying is well-acquainted with football, having played at Central Florida and served as a kicker for the United Football League’s San Antonio Brahmas.

The NFL’s strategic push to expand its global presence, predominantly successful in the United States, involves promoting flag football internationally, contributing to its inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Using content creators and influencers is a natural step forward.

“I think that it starts to show just the convergence of the creator world, the creator economy, together with the NFL,” league executive Ian Trombetta said. “There’s so much interest in what our players are doing and you’re seeing that clearly across the league, whether it be with our existing players or our legends like Cam Newton and others who’ve really leaned into YouTube as a platform. The Kelce brothers are another great example of that. So it’s just this wonderful convergence of creativity and sport. And I think that led us to this place where they’re integrating and give YouTube a lot of credit. They’ve found ways to put forward creators that make sense in these different environments and different situations.”

Grossi, a Green Bay Packers fan, has been watching games with fans on YouTube for almost a decade. He’s aiming to break his streaming record of 51,000 people watching a game with him.

“I love football and I love the Packers,” Grossi said. “To be able to stream these games and have actual fan interaction throughout the game and kind of create that communal sense of we’re all fans watching the game together, I think it just gives folks a different way to engage with football that maybe they haven’t before.”

The NFL has exclusively streamed games before on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix, but those required subscriptions. The Chiefs-Chargers game is available to anyone with access to the internet. That makes it a first.

“Our thesis around bringing an NFL game to YouTube wasn’t just sort of lift and shift from any other network, it was about how do we make it feel uniquely YouTube?” YouTube executive Angela Courtin said. “And the thing that is unique to YouTube, more so than any other platform, is our creator community. And that means bringing creators who are football fans, who talk about their content around football.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl