Shawne Merriman joined Grant & Danny on Wednesday to flex some DC cred – he’s a former Terp and Frederick Douglas HS star, as you may know, and played for Ron Rivera for four years in San Diego – as the right guy to talk to about Chase Young’s future.
But there was one other thing the guys wanted to know about: what was up with his iconic and memorable sack celebration dance?
“Yeah, it's called a Lights Out dance. So, you know, at Frederick Douglas, I knocked out four players in a game my sophomore year, and I begged my mom to let me get a light switch with a hand cutting the light switch off on my right forearm,” Merriman said. “So, when I got a big hit on sack, I was pretending to flip the light switch on and off.”
So where did the dance part come from?
“The other arm is up, and the left hand is pulling down the light switch, flicking it on and off. And that's where the jumping up and down came from. That wasn't intended to happen,” Merriman said. “I just kind of pointed at the light switch, and then I did the dance because the crowd got me amped up and hyped.”
Unfortunately, the celebration almost died on the vine?
“My freshman year, Coach (Ralph) Friedgen said that if I ever do that again at the University of Maryland, I'd never play, so I had to shelve it until I got to the NFL,” Merriman laughed. “So, I tried to do as much as possible, and let me tell you other teams didn't like it…but I loved it, so it worked out.”
Merriman had 45.5 sacks in 79 career games, so it was on display a lot, and even now, Grant believes that if Danny imitated sack dances the way he does batting stances during show breaks, he’d know Merriman’s instantly.
However, Danny would be the ONLY one doing it…
“Man, I wish I could get up as high off the ground now as I could back in the day,” Merriman laughed, “but the way that my knees and back are, I don't think that's gonna happen!”