The Black kid who, at the age of nine, side-eyed the camera at Popeyes and became the physical embodiment of the statement “well, this is awkward,” is now an 18-year-old college student, and he recently inked a name image and likeness (NIL) contract with the fast food company.
His origin story pic.twitter.com/4WQBIFxJf1
— Hard Rock Sportsbook (@HardRockSB) January 11, 2023
Deadspin reports that Dieunerst Collin is a freshman football player at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, competing in Division II. Now that his visage has become a meme that is still widely shared on social media, Collin signed a NIL agreement with Popeyes, the details of which were kept confidential. Hopefully, the agreement would allow him to benefit financially from the ongoing usage of his picture. Collin gained notoriety online for casting the side-eye while carrying a drink in 2013 when a video of him in a Popeyes lobby went viral and became a meme. After almost ten years, Dieunerst has matured and now competes for Lake Erie College on the offensive line. Collin’s New Jersey high school, East Orange Campus High School, won a state title in 2021.
For this young person, who wasn’t spending his or her time on social media today incessantly seeking online influence, this is what you would call a “feel-good” moment. In his youth, the 6-foot-1, 330-pound college student appeared to be an uncomfortable participant in an internet video that went viral and made him the face of Popeyes chicken online. This is a pretty fantastic look for Collin, and it serves as a warning to others whose pictures have been turned into popular internet memes to consider signing their own NIL contracts. – Steve Sijenyi
