The Story Behind Mike Gesicki's Touchdown Celebration
Miami Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki caught his second touchdown pass of the season Thursday, making a smooth leaping grab from quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Afterward, Gesicki did the touchdown "train" celebration he's been performing since 2016.
What's the celebration's origin story? It's rooted in two difficult seasons: Gesicki's and Penn State's, both in 2015.
As a second-year tight end for the Lions, Gesicki had a rough year, catching just 13 passes, dropping his share and struggling on his blocks. The Lions went 7-6 and dropped their last four games of the season, including a 24-17 loss to Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl.
During training camp the following year, Gesicki and former teammate Saeed Blacknall were catching passes when Gesicki spontaneously came up with the move. "It honestly just happened," he said in 2017.
But Gesicki liked the train-conductor celebration and, even more, what he felt it represented. This is how Gesicki explained it three years ago.
"The story behind it is, a lot of people were writing myself off going into that year. They were writing Penn State off," Gesicki said. "So everyone was hopping off the Penn State train, they were hopping off the Mike Gesicki train.
"And now when I do that, I'm telling everybody that the train has left. It's gone, and it's too late to hop on now. If you weren't on it when Penn State wasn't what we are now or I wasn't what I am now, then it's too late. So when I'm doing that, I'm talking to people that hopped off the train."
So what happened after he started the celebration? Gesicki had a bounceback season in 2016, catching 48 passes (five for touchdowns) and earning second-team All-Big Ten honors. He totaled a career-high 679 receiving yards, more than doubling his first two seasons combined.
And Penn State went 11-3, winning its first Big Ten title in eight years.
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