The Griddy’s Rise to Fame

By Doron Finkel ‘24
Recently, a shuffling dance trend, known as the “Griddy”, has taken the sports world by storm. After originating at Louisiana State University, virtually all athletes, influencers and other celebrities have participated in the trend.

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The general public has come to associate the dance’s origin with former LSU wide receiver, Justin Jefferson, who currently plays for the Minnesota Vikings in the National Football League. In his sophomore season in 2019, in a matchup against Texas, Jefferson famously broke out the griddy after scoring a touchdown. However, the star athlete was only the first to introduce the dance to a national stage. 
Louisiana’s Allen Davis, a good friend of former LSU wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, originally invented the griddy. Davis wanted to create his own viral, rhythmic dance after being inspired by the dance trend the “Nae Nae,” and its worldwide popularity in the mid-2010s. After creating the dance, Davis had his friend post it on Snapchat. The following morning, Davis awoke to an overwhelming number of videos of people attempting to replicate his dance. 
    Once Chase arrived at LSU, he quickly introduced the dance to his teammate, Justin Jefferson, along with the rest of the football team. Both Jefferson and Chase famously performed the dance following most of their touchdowns or other spectacular receptions, and it eventually reached the entire world. 
Sophomore, Zach Siegel said, “I was surprised to learn about the origin of the griddy, because in reality I thought it was only created this year by athletes in the NFL.”
    The actual dance is quite simple. It consists of alternating heel taps, as your arms swing back and forth and side to side in rhythm. In fact, the griddy’s simplicity is one of the fundamental factors in its widespread popularity across media outlets. 
    While Jefferson has become the athlete most associated for performing the griddy, fans worldwide continuously debate whether he is just the most famous, or truly the best. Fellow athletes Odell Beckham Jr. of the Los Angeles Rams and the aforementioned Ja’Marr Chase of the Cincinnati Bengals, are also well-known for celebrating a touchdown by breaking out the griddy. 
    In addition to its widespread popularity on football fields, the griddy has also become a popular trend on the social media app TikTok, as many of the most viral videos posted onto the media outlet have featured the griddy. 
While on Naale with his grade, sophomore Joey Askin created multiple videos showcasing himself performing the dance. One of the videos has already accumulated over 3.5 million views and close to 400,000 likes worldwide. 
After posting the video, Askin said, “it was truly unreal to see how such a simple dance can generate this much hype on a video overnight.” 
When asked about Askin’s video, sophomore Avi Tobin stressed that, “It was crazy to see how Joey could blow up so quickly on the internet. He posted it before going to sleep, and then woke up to fame in the morning.” Tobin added that, “It just goes to display how quickly one video of a dance can spread throughout the entire world.” 
With more and more kids and celebrities “'griddying” in their own unique ways, there is no sign that the dance’s popularity will slow down anytime soon, especially as media apps such as Tiktok provide accessibility for videos like Askin’s to be seen throughout the world. 

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