Darnell Dockett retires as an Arizona Cardinal

TEMPE, Ariz. — More than two and a half years since playing his last regular season snap in the National Football League, defensive end Darnell Dockett decided to end his professional career in the same place that it began.

“All I ever wanted to do was make everyone in Arizona happy,” Dockett said.

The three-time pro bowler signed a ceremonial one-day contract with the Arizona Cardinals on Monday during a news conference at the team’s’ training facility in Tempe, officially retiring with the organization that drafted him back in 2004.

Dockett ends his 11-year career as one of the best players in Cardinals franchise history. He finishes with 40 ½ sacks, ranking seventh on the Cardinals all-time list. Docket was also part of a franchise-altering 2004 class that featured Larry Fitzgerald, Karlos Dansby and Antonio Smith.

“When I came in, it was difficult, it was very different,” Dockett said. “To be a part of the core players to change the culture around here, and to get everything that the organization has right now and look back and say wow, I came and I accomplished something.”

Dockett’s best season came in 2009, when he helped lead Arizona to its first ever Super Bowl appearance. That game would arguably be the highlight of Dockett’s career, when he tied a Super Bowl record by bringing down Ben Roethlisberger three times in a losing effort against Pittsburgh. Dockett said not winning a ring haunts him to this day.

“This year when they win the Super Bowl, I better get a replica ring,” he said.

Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians, who called the game-winning play in Super Bowl XLIII as offensive coordinator for the Steelers, said Dockett brought something to the field that often goes by the wayside in today’s NFL.

“Passion, every single day, not just gameday,” Arians said. “That’s what’s missing from most players today is passion that you have to have to play this game, and that’s what he brought every single day.”

Dockett played four more seasons with the Cardinals until tearing his ACL during training camp in 2014. He spent that year on injured reserve before being released by Arizona the following offseason. Dockett subsequently signed with the 49ers in 2015, but was released during the preseason.

“I’m not even going to talk about that other team that I went to, because my heart was never there, I mean everyone knew that,” Dockett said.

Dockett brought the same passion off the field as he did on it. The four-time Cardinals captain was a noted leader in the locker room, and wasn’t afraid to speak his mind publicly. He frequently made headlines with brash comments on social media, even claiming to own a pet alligator and a pet tiger on separate occasions.

As for what he plans to do after football, Dockett said he wants to travel the world, spend time with his family and of course “root for the Cardinals.” Former teammate Adrian Wilson may have put it best as he thanked Dockett at the press conference.

“There are heroes, there are villains, and then there’s Dockett, he said.”