Mark Gastineau’s two-decade-plus grudge against Brett Favre will be featured 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 sports memorabilia show in Chicago last year and accusing him of giving New York Giants pass rusher Michael Strahan an easy sack in January 2002 to break Gastineau’s NFL single-season record.
Favre and Gastineau shook hands and Favre talked about how the two had met in the past.
“Yes, right – when you fell for [Strahan]Gastineau said. “I’m going to get my bag back. I’m gonna get my bag back, dude.”
A stunned Favre responded, “You’d probably hurt me,” to which Gastineau shot back, “Well, I don’t care.” You hurt me. You hurt me! Do you hear me?’
“Yes, 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 about the firing changed in 2020
Gastineau came onto the field at Giants Stadium in 2002 to congratulate Strahan on breaking the record. But in February 2020, he admitted to ESPN’s Rich Cimini that he wasn’t happy with what he believed Favre was diving 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 anyone’s feelings.’ It’s my record… Being nice and being a good sport is good, but it’s not real. In fact, I’m kind of a liar. I feel like there’s just something wrong.
Responding to accusations that he gave Strahan an easy sack, Favre said after that 2002 game, “We didn’t lay down for him.”
“Anyone will tell you that Brett Favre took a dive,” Gastineau says in the documentary.
Recently, Gastineau told Cimini that he had waited a long time to confront Favre and that he believes Strahan and Favre conspired together.
“I wanted to let him know it was a trash bag,” Gastineau said. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time – many, many years. I only have one man left to go to.”
Since Strahan recorded his 22 1/2 sacks to pass Gastineau, the record was tied by TJ 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 the way he lost the sack record nearly 23 years ago could have something to do with the fact he wasn’t in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Despite being the NFL’s 1982 Defensive Player of the Year, a four-time First-Team All-Pro, a five-time Pro Bowler and a two-time NFL sack leader, finishing with 107.5 sacks in his career, Gastineau never reached the semifinals of the Hall of Fame vote.
