He appeared in 16 NFL games, all for the 1984 St. Louis Cardinals, and he spent brief periods on the rosters of the New York Giants and Houston Oilers.
He reached the school's top five all-time in career sacks and was part of the LSU team that went to the 1983 Orange Bowl.
Dardar became addicted to crack cocaine during his time in professional football, and after his playing days he turned to burglary to make money for drugs.
[1] He grew up with a Breaux Bridge address and attended school in nearby Cecilia, so football fans from both communities have claimed Dardar as one of their hometown players.
[7] In football, Dardar had been named the defensive most valuable player in a fall 1978 St. Martin Parish coaches poll, and Cecilia High School finished tied for the District 5-AAA championship with a 9–1 win–loss record.
[8] Dardar later said that high school football taught him versatility, as he might be expected to play any position other than quarterback, depending on the opponent.
When announcing that decision, LSU head coach Jerry Stovall said that Dardar had gotten involved in more big defensive plays than Marshall in the Florida State game.
[13] After LSU lost their first two games to top five teams (Alabama and Notre Dame), Stovall announced that Dardar would play at both nose guard and defensive tackle, but would spend most of his time at the former.
[1][17] The team finished the regular season with an 8-2-1 record and went to the Orange Bowl against Nebraska, where Dardar was lined up opposite Dave Rimington, the Cornhuskers' center who had won his second Outland Trophy, an award given to the nation's best interior offensive lineman.
[18] The Cornhuskers gained 218 rushing yards in a 21–20 victory, but the head coaches of both teams praised Dardar's play and noted that Rimington did not dominate the matchup.
[1] In January 1983, Dardar was selected by the United States Football League's New Jersey Generals in the third round of the USFL Draft.
[22] Dardar said that he was hesitant to report to a USFL training camp since they started so soon after the end of the college football season.
After the Generals signed the highly regarded running back Herschel Walker as a free agent, the team gave up on negotiating with Dardar and all of their top four draft picks.
[23] Three months later, Dardar was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the third round (71st overall) of the 1983 NFL Draft,[24] and he agreed to a series of one-year contracts with the team in late June.
[28] In December 1983, Cardinals coach Jim Hanifan discussed moving Dardar to the offensive line to play guard.
[34][26] In October 1990, Dardar pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary after admitting to break-ins that occurred in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, between May 1989 and May 1990.
He was also required to perform community service, undergo treatment for substance abuse and pay $5500 in restitution to victims of his crimes.
Police did not find any items missing from the house, but there was jewelry in Dardar's truck that was thought to have been stolen from another home the night before.
[43] In May 1992, Dardar was sentenced to six years in prison after a guilty plea to charges of simple burglary and possession of stolen goods.
[45] In that incident, a woman flagged down a canine officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department after seeing Dardar break into a shed.