Former New York Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau’s 20-plus year grudge against Brett Favre is on display in an upcoming ESPN documentary about “The New York Sack Exchange,” the dominant defensive line in the 1980s that featured Gastineau, Marty Lyons, Joe Klecko, and the late Abdul Salaam.
Gastineau is shown confronting Favre at a Chicago sports memorabilia show last year and accusing him of giving New York Giants pass rusher Michael Strahan an easy sack in Jan. 2002 to break Gastineau’s single-season NFL record.
Favre and Gastineau shook hands and Favre mentioned how the two had met in the past.
“Yeah, right — when you fell down for [Strahan],” said Gastineau. “I’m going to get my sack back. I’m going to get my sack back, dude.”
A stunned Favre replied, “You probably would hurt me,” to which Gastineau shot back, “Well, I don’t care. You hurt me. You hurt me! You hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you,” Favre said.
“You really hurt me. You really hurt me, Brett,” Gastineau said as Favre was led away by one of his handlers.
Gastineau’s feelings on sack record changed in 2020
Gastineau came onto the field at Giants Stadium in 2002 to congratulate Strahan for breaking the record. But in Feb. 2020, he admitted to ESPN’s Rich Cimini that he wasn’t happy with what he believes was Favre taking a dive did that day.
“It’s my record, and I want it to be known that it’s my record,” Gastineau said nearly five years ago. “I’m not going to say, ‘I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.’ It’s my record. … Being nice and being a good sport, that’s good, but it’s not real. In fact, I’m kind of a liar in a way. I feel like there’s just something wrong.”
Responding to accusations that he gave Strahan an easy sack, Favre said after that game in 2002, “We didn’t lay down for him.”
“Anybody will tell you that Brett Favre took a dive,” Gastineau says in the documentary.
Recently, Gastineau told Cimini that he had been waiting a long time to confront Favre and that he believes that Strahan and Favre conspired together.
“I wanted to let him know it was a trash sack,” Gastineau said. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time — many, many years. I’ve only got one more guy to go to.”
Since Strahan recorded his 22 1/2 sack to pass Gastineau, the record has been matched by T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021. Jared Allen (2011) and Justin Houston (2014) have each tied Gastineau with 22 sacks in a single season.
Gastineau’s frustration with how he lost the sack record nearly 23 years ago could have 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 leader, who finished with 107.5 sacks in his career, Gastineau has never reached the semifinal stage in Hall of Fame voting.
