Former New York Jets defensive finish Mark Gastineau’s 20-plus 12 months grudge in opposition to Brett Favre is on show in an upcoming ESPN documentary about “The New York Sack Exchange,” the dominant line of defense within the Nineteen Eighties that featured Gastineau, Marty Lyons, Joe Klecko and the late Abdul Salaam.
Gastineau is proven confronting Favre at a Chicago sports activities memorabilia present final 12 months and accusing him of giving New York Giants go rusher Michael Strahan a straightforward sack in January of 2002 to interrupt Gastineau’s single-season NFL document.
Favre and Gastineau shook arms and Favre talked about how the 2 had met prior to now.
“Yeah, proper — once you fell down for [Strahan],” mentioned Gastineau. “I’m going to get my sack again. I’m going to get my sack again, dude.”
A shocked Favre replied, “You in all probability would harm me,” to which Gastineau shot again, “Well, I do not care. You harm me. You harm me! You hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you,” Favre mentioned.
“You actually harm me. You actually harm me, Brett,” Gastineau mentioned as Favre was led away by considered one of his handlers.
Gastineau’s emotions on sack document modified in 2020
Gastineau got here onto the sector at Giants Stadium in 2002 to congratulate Strahan for breaking the document. But in February of 2020, he admitted to ESPN’s Rich Cimini that he wasn’t proud of what he believes was Favre taking a dive that day.
“It’s my document, and I would like it to be identified that it is my document,” Gastineau mentioned almost 5 years in the past. “I’m not going to say, ‘I do not need to harm anyone’s emotions.’ It’s my document. … Being good and being a very good sport, that is good, however it’s not actual. In reality, I’m form of a liar in a means. I really feel like there’s simply one thing incorrect.”
Responding to accusations that he gave Strahan a straightforward sack, Favre mentioned after that recreation in 2002, “We did not lay down for him.”
“Anybody will inform you that Brett Favre took a dive,” Gastineau says within the documentary.
Recently, Gastineau instructed Cimini that he had been ready a very long time to confront Favre and that he believes that Strahan and Favre conspired collectively.
“I wished to let him realize it was a trash sack,” Gastineau mentioned. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time — many, a few years. I’ve solely bought another man to go to.”
Since Strahan recorded his 22 1/2 sack to go Gastineau, the document has been matched by T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021. Jared Allen (2011) and Justin Houston (2014) have every tied Gastineau with 22 sacks in a single season.
Gastineau’s frustration with how he misplaced the sack document almost 23 years in the past might need to do with him not being in Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Despite being the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1982, a four-time First-Team All-Pro, five-time Pro Bowler and two-time NFL sack chief, who completed with 107.5 sacks in his profession, Gastineau has by no means reached the semifinal stage in Hall of Fame voting.
