The North Jersey Group 5 championship game between Clifton and East Orange was peak entertainment. For starters, the game culminated with a 100-yard fumble return for a touchdown. But the biggest highlight of the night wasn’t that. Remember the Kid From Side-Eye Popeyes Meme? He was part of the East Orange Team and is now a State Champion!

Controversy erupts in the championship game between Clifton and East Orange

The game between Clifton and East Orange ended with a 100-yard fumble return for a touchdown on Sunday. Video review, which used various camera angles, could not overturn the call, and the game came to an abrupt and dramatic conclusion.

The play in question occurred during the third overtime period. Kyle Vellis of Clifton plowed forward on a quarterback with the ball inside the one-yard line. Ahmad Nalls, an East Orange linebacker, emerged from the pile with the ball and dashed down the sideline. The madness eventually concluded when Nalls returned the fumble 100 yards for a touchdown.

After the game, coach Clifton was clearly unhappy with the result. “I thought we got robbed,” Clifton coach Ralph Cinque said before walking off the field at Rutgers’ SHI Stadium in Piscataway. “Not saying that they don’t deserve to win the football game because that’s a great football team over there, but that’s how you’re going to end a great football game? With a call like that?”

The Iconic Side-Eye “Popeyes Meme” Kid is a State Champion now, but it wasn’t a rosy journey

Thanks to East Orange winning the State Championship, the iconic Side-Eye “Popeyes Meme” Kid aka Dieunerst Collin is now a State Championship. From being bullied for becoming a meme to a state champion now, his journey has been nothing but inspirational. “When it first happened, I kind of felt sad about it. It was somebody randomly recording me, and I’ve never been viral before,” he said of the Vine, according to Sports Illustrated.

“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.”

“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.”

Inspirational!

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