Clark Hazlett, a 2015 Lynden High School graduate, is currently in Prague playing quarterback for the Prague Lions in the European League of Football while continuing to grow his Adventure Athlete YouTube channel and perform country music internationally. (Courtesy of Clark Hazlett and the LFA)
PRAGUE — Clark Hazlett, a 2015 Lynden High School graduate, has turned an unlikely path through college football, social media and international leagues into a career that spans continents, sports and creative pursuits.
Hazlett, now 28, lives much of his life in motion. He splits his time between Sydney, Australia and Prague in the Czech Republic, where he plays quarterback for professional American football teams. Between seasons, he returns briefly to Whatcom County, the place he still calls home.
At the center of Hazlett’s multifaceted career is his YouTube channel, Adventure Athlete, which has grown to more than 205,000 subscribers and more than 20 million views. His most popular video, What’s A College Football Player Away Game Routine Like?, released in 2018, has surpassed 1.6 million views. Hazlett said that single video was the turning point that led him to take YouTube seriously as both a creative outlet and a business.
“That one video changed everything,” Hazlett said. “As a creator, they say your niche chooses you. That was when I realized, okay, it’s time to go all in on these football videos.”
Originally, Hazlett had envisioned creating outdoor adventure content, inspired by his childhood in Whatcom County.
“Being in Whatcom County, we have everything somebody who loves the outdoors could want,” he said. “It’s ironic but also not ironic how the Adventure Athlete name was able to mold into this traveling football player.”
Since then, his channel has evolved into a resource for aspiring athletes who are curious about opportunities beyond U.S. borders. Hazlett said his goal has become to document life as an American football player overseas, educating young players about a path he didn’t know existed when he was growing up.
“I always wanted to be the role model that I didn’t have growing up,” Hazlett said. “Besides my father being my role model, I didn’t know how or what opportunities were out there as an athlete.”
Hazlett’s journey began after high school when he played quarterback at the Division III level for Linfield University in Oregon. At 5-foot-11, Hazlett knew he didn’t fit the typical NFL prospect profile. He describes himself as “an undersized, underdeveloped guy” who had to carve out his own route into professional sports. After college, he headed overseas in 2020, first to France, where he joined the country’s homegrown football league.
Moving abroad, Hazlett found himself navigating both new cultures and unfamiliar football landscapes.
“Just being a boy from Whatcom County, you never thought you’d be halfway across the globe,” he said. “It wasn’t even something to dream about, getting to play overseas.”
Hazlett admits the transition initially brought culture shock.
“When I first went overseas in 2020, it was a real culture shock for me,” he said. “But as time’s gone on, I’ve been able to learn how to adapt and find a little bit of home away from home.”
Today, Hazlett plays in both the Australian and European leagues, a rare dual-season approach that keeps him busy nearly year-round. In Australia, he suits up in Sydney, where he also leads a country music band called The Curleys. In Europe, he plays as a reserve quarterback for the Prague Lions, part of the European League of Football (ELF), which Hazlett described as “the NFL of Europe.”
“Since I first came over to Europe in 2020, each country pretty much had its homegrown league,” he said. “Now there’s the European League of Football, which has teams from Madrid, Prague, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Switzerland. That’s been the biggest growth so far.”
Hazlett said the ELF has helped raise the level of competition and provided more structure for athletes like him. Each ELF team is allowed a limited number of American players and European imports, creating a pipeline for talent across the continent. The expansion of the ELF has fueled his mission to promote American football internationally.
“When it comes to growing it, that’s where the social media side of things really comes into play,” Hazlett said. “People can be in Oklahoma watching my YouTube videos and learn there’s even football in Europe. Most folks back home still ask me, ‘Oh, you play soccer?’ And I’m always like, ‘No, no, no — American football.’”
Beyond YouTube and football, Hazlett has pursued country music. In 2020, he moved to Nashville to immerse himself in songwriting and music business culture. While there, he connected with other artists, many of them former athletes, who advised him to keep building life experiences before releasing music in earnest.
“As a country artist, most folks don’t really want to listen to a 23-year-old sing songs when he hasn’t really experienced life,” Hazlett said. “So the biggest advice for me was to go experience the world and build my catalog of songs.”
That’s exactly what Hazlett has done. Between games, he performs in bars in Sydney and Prague, playing original country music and covers. In Australia, he formed The Curleys, a band made up of fellow musicians who all happen to have curly hair. Hazlett said performing live has helped him grow as a musician while maintaining his athletic commitments.
“It wasn’t until this past year that I started actually gigging with my band in Australia,” he said. “It opened my eyes to the possibility of having a band and making some good money on the weekends.”
While music and football are Hazlett’s twin passions, his YouTube channel remains his most visible presence. He’s built a team to help manage editing and post-production, freeing up time for other pursuits. His videos have shifted from purely football tutorials to reflections on his experiences living abroad.
“Right now, it’s the reflection videos that resonate most,” he said. “Breaking down my top 10 experiences in each country, rating which country I had my best experience in, or breaking down my day-to-day routine. Now that I’m almost at veteran status, I can really talk about my experiences and help kids who get the chance to go overseas not make the same mistakes I made.”
Hazlett credits his college studies in digital marketing and sports management with helping him build a business from his channel. The Adventure Athlete brand has allowed him to secure partnerships, consulting work and revenue streams beyond football. This financial stability, he said, is crucial, because overseas football salaries alone don’t match professional leagues in North America.
“The team takes care of accommodation, insurance, travel, transportation and a salary on top of it all, which is great,” he said. “But it’s also nice to still have other revenue coming in, so not everything is relying on football.”
Hazlett sees his brand’s future as a balance of sports and music. He’s aware that his audience originally found him through football and has been cautious about how much music content to integrate into his main channel. To manage this, he’s created separate platforms for his music under the name It’s Our Country, allowing him to pursue music while maintaining his football audience.
“I’ve realized it’s important to build two brands,” he said. “People love me for football, and now I’m starting to have my audience love me for who I am as a person, not just as an athlete.”
Looking ahead, Hazlett said he plans to grow his music presence in Australia, a country whose country-music scene reminds him of home. He’s also applying for permanent residency there, hoping to split time between Australia and the U.S. after his playing days end.
“I’ve got to find a way to do something that hasn’t been done before,” Hazlett said. “Kind of like how I started my football YouTube channel.”
Though his journey has taken him around the world, Hazlett still finds comfort in coming home. When he lands at Sea-Tac Airport after months abroad, it’s the simple sights and sounds that remind him of where he started.
“To be honest, it’s still in the airport,” he said. “Seeing that sign that says ‘The United States of America,’ and hearing people speak English — I’m always like, woah. It feels different.”
Hazlett hopes his story shows young athletes there’s more than one way to build a career in sports — and that the world is bigger than any one league.
“It’s been cool how everything has kind of come full circle,” he said. “I just want to help educate the next generation, give them a little bit more purpose and show them there are opportunities to travel the world and play football.”
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