PAINESVILLE, Ohio — Dieunerst Collin is embracing everything that comes his way these days.
With a million-dollar smile and a humble personality, the freshman football player at Lake Erie College is enjoying what has become a surreal ride for an 18-year-old.
Collin recently landed a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal with Popeyes. Couple that with endless media interviews and what feels like even more fame now than the unwanted fame he garnered nine years ago as a child, and it’s certainly a unique story.
“It’s felt pretty normal,” Collin told 3News Sports Anchor Nick Camino recently in a sit-down interview. “I’m not the type of person to say I have all this big fame.”
Collin, who goes by the name Dennis, told the story of how nine years ago near his home in New Jersey, a complete stranger started filming him at a Popeyes Chicken while waiting for his father and brother to get out of the restroom. The video soon blew up on social media websites like Vine and Facebook. Today, the same meme video can still be used on Twitter and Instagram.
At first, things weren’t all that funny to Collin and his family.
“When it first happened, I got really emotional,” Collin recalled. “I started crying to my mom, 'cause it’s like, ‘why am I in the spotlight? I don’t want to be in the spotlight.’”
Collin’s family even tried to get the image and video scrubbed from the internet completely.
Nine years later, it’s a whole new ball game for Collin.
Now, he’s cashing in and there are no more tears.
Popeyes reached out to Collin directly and explained how they were interested in working with the college football player on a name, image and likeness deal, following an NCAA policy change.
How did Collin react when he got the word?
“I was actually in the café with my roommate and some teammates, saw the message [from Popeyes] and just got super excited and started dancing,” Collin recalls with a laugh.
His head coach at Lake Erie College is all about this unique opportunity.
“I could never guess the gravity of it all,” D.J. Boldin told WKYC. “But, living in it now, I’m in full support of guys being compensated for their likeness.”
Collin has been featured on Popeyes billboards, digital online advertisements and social media. It’s happening all over again.
Collin holds no ill will against the stranger from nine years ago who filmed him unwillingly. In fact, he says if he could talk to him now, he would thank him.
“Embrace everything that’s going on,” Collin says is his message for kids. “Even if it’s in a bad way. Everything bad can be flipped in a good way. When you do that, to me, you meet some of the best people in your life. Embrace what you can, and you’ll meet the best people you can in your life.”