Nearly 23 years after Michael Strahan took down Brett Favre in controversial fashion on Jan. 6, 2002 to break the NFL's single-season sack record, former New York Jets star Michael Gastineau aired out his grievances.
Late in the fourth quarter of the Green Bay Packers' 34–25 win that fateful day, Favre gave himself up to Strahan, who tapped him down to tally a record-breaking 22.5 sacks on the year. Many thought Favre made it too easy for Strahan to notch the record, including Gastineau, who told Favre at a memorabilia show in 2023 that he "hurt" him by doing that.
Shortly after ESPN posted the clip of their conversation to tease its upcoming 30 for 30 project titled The New York Sack Exchange, Favre hopped on social media to give his side of the story.
"I was in no way trying to hurt Mark Gastineau," Favre wrote. "I was trying to close out a game and squeeze the last bit of fun out of a hard-fought game."
Favre went on to write that on the play, he simply called for a bootleg play thinking that it would be open. Strahan, however, beat his man and was right there to take him down.
"In a different game or situation, I would have made a bigger effort to avoid the sack or TFL," Favre wrote. "But at no point was I thinking about hurting Gastineau. Maybe it crossed my mind to help Strahan. I didn’t think it through. That wasn’t my forte at the time.
"I just wanted to have fun and compete. In retrospect, I understand how Gastineau feels. We played a brutal game. Gastineau played during an era where guys didn’t make generational wealth."
I have a great deal of respect for Mark.
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) December 11, 2024
I hope one day he joins me in the Hall of Fame.
He earned it. Look at his numbers.
He eclipsed 20 sacks twice and had 19 in another year!
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Strahan still owns the record with 22.5, although Pittsburgh Steelers star T.J. Watt tied him in 2021. Two other players—Jared Allen in 2011 and Justin Houston in '14—tied Gastineau with 22 sacks.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Brett Favre Addresses Viral Exchange With Mark Gastineau Over Michael Strahan Sack.
