Some people celebrate a good day with a little dance. Mark Gastineau celebrated every sack with one, and he got so many sacks that the NFL eventually wrote a rule about it.

So the old New York Jets star was a little puzzled last Sunday. Jets rookie pass rusher David Bailey had three sacks against the Cleveland Browns and reacted to each one so calmly that you'd think he'd just remembered to reply to an email.

Meet the original sack celebrator

Gastineau, now 69, danced so much and so flamboyantly that it enraged opponents and annoyed some teammates, ESPN's Rich Cimini wrote. His answer was more sacks and more dancing, until the NFL banned excessive individual celebrations in 1984. People called it the Mark Gastineau Rule, and it was officially relaxed in 2017.

He backed up the moves, too. Gastineau finished his career with 107.5 sacks, including 22 in 1984, a single-season record that stood for 17 years.

To him, the dance was never about showing anyone up. It was joy, the payoff for all that work. "My payoff was the celebration," Gastineau told ESPN. "I just got excited, loving every minute of it. I couldn't help but dance."

Bailey's very quiet breakout

The three sacks against Cleveland were a career high for Bailey. The Jets' PR team noted that he became just the seventh rookie since 2002 to have a three-sack game within his first five career games, and the first since Aidan Hutchinson in 2022. He also led the NFL with nine pressures in Week 5, per the Jets. Pressures are the plays where a rusher hurries, hits or sacks the quarterback.

Gastineau is a fan. "He played his butt off [last week]," he said. "I love the way he played." He sees a young player with "a very bright future."

He just can't believe the kid doesn't get fired up. "I'm sure [Bailey] gets excited. If he doesn't get excited after a sack, that would amaze me," Gastineau said. "He just does his own thing, I guess. That's why there are different people in this world."

For the record, Bailey does get excited. He just keeps it inside. In training camp, he called a sack "literally probably the best feeling in the world. It's like nothing else." He simply skips the celly, as Cimini put it.

Gastineau even found a bright side: "The offensive linemen won't be as apt to get mad, with him not dancing."

Next up: the Patriots

Bailey's next chance to not celebrate comes Sunday, when the Jets (2-3) visit the New England Patriots (3-2) at 1 p.m. ET on CBS. New England just activated star receiver A.J. Brown from injured reserve after he missed four games with a high ankle sprain, so quarterback Drake Maye gets his top target back.

The Jets have their own storylines. Running back Braelon Allen, all 242 pounds of him, starts again with Breece Hall (quadriceps) out for a third straight game. Offensive coordinator Frank Reich described Allen as a big man "with little man's feet." Receiver Tim Patrick also raised eyebrows by saying the Jets "could be the best" offense in the league. "We have so much talent, it's insane," he said.

And quarterback Geno Smith could join a short list. Since the 1970 merger, only three Jets quarterbacks, Vinny Testaverde, Chad Pennington and Mark Sanchez, have at least two regular-season wins over the Patriots, per ESPN. Smith was on the winning side once already, as a rookie in 2013.

If Bailey gets to Maye on Sunday, watch closely. You probably won't see a dance. But somewhere, a 69-year-old sack king will be doing one for him.