The Popeyes meme has come full circle as that kid from the famous video has landed a NIL deal with the restaurant.
Dieunerst Collin, who was the subject of said meme as a nine-year-old, is believed to have gotten himself that bag after getting some help from the online community.
Collin is now an offensive lineman for Lake Eerie College and took to Instagram to say he wanted to talk business with the restaurant after giving them free advertising for nearly a decade. He asked folks to tag the fast food joint, which they did. And Popeyes has since reached out.
The OL got the idea from college sports fanatic Jim Weber, who suggested via Twitter that Popeyes should offer the meme kid a deal in the wake of NIL’s introduction last year. Collin got wind and made his own move.
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It Was A Tough Adjustment For The Popeyes Meme Kid
Speaking to Sports Illustrated after winning a state championship with East Orange High School in 2021, Collin admitted he was hurt by the meme at first but found a way to get over it.
“When it first happened, I kind of felt sad about it,” he said. “It was somebody randomly recording me, and I’ve never been viral before. When it first came out, I would take it as bullying, every time I used to hear ‘Oh, Terio, Terio,’ and that’s not my name … a couple weeks later, I figured out it was me based on the video. I got kind of emotional, cried a little bit. Over the years, I got over it.
“When I was in middle school, I had a couple people say things like, ‘You’re Terio, you’re a meme,’ and it was all the high schoolers. “People in my class found it very funny, so then I just continued being myself. I got over it once everybody who would randomly come up to me and call me Terio actually met me and learned my actual name and got to know me, that’s when I got over it.”
