Your Friends and Neighbors

Twice Famous

In 2013 an East Orange 9-year-old “went viral” with a sidelong glance. Now glance again: He’s a high school football star!

Once the subject of an internet meme, East Orange teen Dieunerst Collin has achieved fame on a different stage—the football field. This past season, Collin was one of the stars of the East Orange High School football team, which won the state championship. True, Ronald Reagan was a movie star and then a President, but most of us never get to be celebrities even once. And if for a moment we do catch the public’s eye, that moment is apt to define us forever. Not so with Dieunerst Collin, 17, of East Orange.

You may remember Collin’s face even if his name rings no bell. At age 9 he became a sensation on the now-defunct looping video site Vine. He was captured on video standing in line at the fast-food restaurant Popeye’s when a man noticed and called out his resemblance to a young internet celeb named Terio. The resulting “Terio at Popeye’s” meme was seen by some 19 million people, and it became a widely shared “GIF”—for graphics interchange format unit—because Collin’s side-eyed look in reaction expressed skepticism better than words ever could.

Alas, becoming part of our visual language when you’re still a kid has its downside. But last December Collin earned fame with a bigger frame—as an offensive lineman on the state-champion East Orange Jaguars high school football team. Morris/Essex Health & Life checked in with him to see if renown has gone to his head—twice.

How did you feel when you realized you were the subject of a viral meme?

At first I didn’t believe it. But when I saw the post myself, I thought, “Oh my gosh. People are not going to know me as me—they’ll know me as Terio.” I really thought, “Oh boy, this is probably going to ruin my life and mess me up a little bit, to the point where I don’t want to ever go outside again!”

After your team won the state championship, you posed for a photo with the trophy making the famous Popeye’s face. How do you feel now about the meme and the Internet fame it has brought you?

I see it in a positive light, because now I’m not just known as some funny guy—I’m a funny, athletic guy who just helped win the state championship for a city that hasn’t won a championship for at least a decade now. I don’t think people expected me to get into sports, but I did, and that’s the career I’d like to pursue.

Tell us about your football career.

I didn’t start playing football until my freshman year of high school, and I never thought I would be any good at it. The coaches saw me as a big guy who could move and felt I showed some athleticism. With their guidance, I began to take it more seriously. They believed in me, and I started to believe in myself. By sophomore year, I was being considered for varsity and wanted to be with the older and stronger guys. So, I thought, “Let’s see what I can do.” I began to train hard—I lost a couple of pounds, got faster, got stronger. I really thank my coaches, trainers and teammates for making me a better center [offensive lineman] physically and mentally. My teammates and I really wanted to bring the state title to East Orange before graduating—our class is so talented and we didn’t want to waste that talent. In the off-season before my senior year, I worked the hardest I ever had and broke my body down to be as good as I am, and we came away with the championship.

What are your hopes for the future?

I want to play college football. So far, I have one offer and interest from a couple other schools. My main goal is to major in journalism or sports management so I can pursue a career right after football. I’d like to make it to the NFL, then ESPN, where I hope to one day have my own show. I’m an entertaining guy and have the sports knowledge. I’m going to pursue that dream because that’s what I really want to do. —Sarah Nolan