This is a story about a friend trying to motivate an NFL player to greater heights. An inspirational tale.

More or less.

It's also a great story about two guys getting a matching pair of "dumb" tattoos.

Veteran linebacker Dennis Gardeck and assistant equipment man Marcus Lukes have bonded since Lukes started in 2021, and that year, Gardeck said, the two had an "obnoxious joke" that if Gardeck got four sacks in a game, Lukes would get a tattoo of Gardeck's face on his own face. Eventually though, it became a real deal.

"It was a little bit of messing around, and a little bit of trying to push him to break some records," Lukes said.

Nothing happened in 2021 so it was pushed to 2022. It was two big plays -- two sacks, a sack and an interception, something like that. They landed on DoodleBob -- part of the SpongeBob Squarepants universe -- as the choice. Lukes said there were other ideas brought up for the tattoo.

Can we speak of any of them? "Probably not."

"Four sacks was an incredibly tall order, so we kind of kept fine-tuning it until it came down to two big plays in a game and we'll do a DoodleBob tattoo," Gardeck added. "It's kind of a dumb tattoo but I'm a sucker for dumb tattoos."

Then Gardeck had a sack and an interception in a win at Carolina in Week 4 last season.

"As soon as I found out I got the sack I went up to (Marcus) and said, 'We're getting the tattoos, we're doing it on the bye week, so be ready,'" Gardeck said.

Gardeck got a small DoodleBob near his elbow. Lukes went all-in with a big DoodleBob on his thigh.

"He picked his size and I was given my options and said. 'Biggest one please,'" Lukes said of his first tattoo, although he paused when asked what his fiancee, Ariel Morgan, thought. "It's growing on her."

"His first tattoo ever is DoodleBob on his leg," Gardeck said. "I'm like, 'You sure you want it that big?'

"He was committed."