Cardinals’ Dennis Gardeck adds Markus Golden’s St. Louis Stomp to his list of sack celebrations
Sep 16, 2024, 10:59 AM
Retired pass rusher Markus Golden got the honorary captain title for the Arizona Cardinals’ game against the Los Angeles Rams, but arguably the better hat-tip came in the middle of the action Sunday.
Dennis Gardeck celebrated the first of his career-high, three-sack day with the St. Louis Stomp, a nod to Golden.
The Junkyard Dog pic.twitter.com/N8xY2yfl7O
— Desert Sports (@AZSportsFan20) September 16, 2024
“Markus Golden did not tell me he was doing the coin toss, which was absolutely absurd,” Gardeck said after the game. “He kind of got me charged up, seeing him out there. That’s my dog. One of my favorite teammates that I ever played with. He used to do the St. Louis Stomp, little something like this.
“He’d say, ‘We’ve been doing this since high school, Dennis!’ So that was a little nod toward Markus.”
Gardeck spent time with Golden as a rookie in 2018 when the undrafted linebacker out of Sioux Falls was a backup and special teamer. They later shared the same position room during Golden’s second run with Arizona in 2020-22.
Arizona Cardinals pass rusher Dennis Gardeck made sure to pay tribute to former teammate and recently retired Markus Golden (@markusgolden) during his 3-sack day vs. the Rams.
Junk was in attendance for the beatdown. pic.twitter.com/dMoedMWsXz
— Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) September 16, 2024
A brief history of Dennis Gardeck’s sack celebrations for the Cardinals
Gardeck is not just a student in the art of the sack celebration.
He is a teacher, too.
Inspiration for his sack celebrations has come from a bevy of places, be it from wrestling star Daniel Garcia, a former teammate or from his own imagination.
Gardeck reinvented a move from the movie Hot Rod as the “turn the cona.” As in, around the corner of a cone drill just like the outside linebacker room’s pass rush drills.
Then there’s Gardeck’s other go-to: “hitting the strobe.”
HIT THE STROBE https://t.co/Dk7UKyNeiL
— Dennis Gardeck (@DGardeck) December 13, 2020
Now in his seventh NFL season, Gardeck has assembled quite the resume when it comes to his sack celebrations. And his football career has come along pretty nicely, too.
