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YouTube's NFL Coverage Levels Up with Wildly Popular Streamer

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Alex Weber | Last updated Aug 26, 2025 9:36 AM ET

The NFL is getting as creative as possible with its Week 1 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers. The game is already taking place in Brazil on a Friday night and will be the first-ever NFL broadcast exclusively on YouTube.

As part of the groundbreaking event for the streaming giant, YouTube is including one of its largest stars, Darren Watkins Jr., or IShowSpeed, who will have his own watch-a-long stream, Sportico reported Tuesday morning.

"IShowSpeed headlines the first group of creators who will use YouTube’s 'Watch With' feature during the game, while Packers fan Tom Grossi and a pair of Spanish-language web stars—Robegrill and SKabeche—deliver their own altcasts," said Sportico.

Watkins, the man behind IShowSpeed, is just 20 years old but has 43.3 million subscribers on YouTube, making him one of the most popular channels on the entire service. His biggest video has 231 million views.

IShowSpeed has mingled with the NFL before and attended an event about six months ago, a flag football game in New Orleans where he served as captain for the aptly-named Team Speed. His players spanned from former NFL MVP Cam Newton to renowned rapper Quavo.

NFL Giving Back to Fans With YouTube Broadcast

It's become a tired joke at this point that the NFL has seemingly one focus and one focus only, and that's continuing to print money and dominate the television ratings.

But this YouTube one-off is a real fan-first effort, since the game itself will air on the website completely free of charge for anyone to watch. No, you won't need a YouTube TV account or any sort of cable login; you can just crack open the laptop and watch the game.

Plus, with IShowSpeed and other fan-favorite guests participating in watch-alongs, the NFL is branching out and continuing to try new broadcasts to reach more fans, like they did with events such as the Spongebob or Disney-themed games.

Coincidentally, the same morning the NFL announced this news, Rolling Stone tweeted out that they have named IShowSpeed the No. 1 most influential creator of 2025. Not a bad guy to have on the first NFL broadcast of the season.

Rolling Stone names @ishowspeedsui as the #1 most influential creator of 2025

IShowSpeed has transformed a childhood nickname and his longtime love of video games into an IRL streaming empire.

Full list: https://t.co/skyf2C1hUS pic.twitter.com/VgiW5vNcMr
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) August 26, 2025