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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer
Former New York Jets star Mark Gastineau, who has carried a grudge against Brett Favre for two decades, confronted the Hall of Fame quarterback last year at a memorabilia show and accused him of deliberately taking a sack that cost Gastineau the NFL’s single-season record.
It made for a tense and uncomfortable scene, captured on video. It appears in the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary “The New York Sack Exchange,” which premieres 8 p.m. ET Friday (ESPN/ESPN+).
An angry Gastineau attended the Chicago-based memorabilia show with two other members of the Jets’ “Sack Exchange,” a four-man defensive line that dominated the early 1980s. He approached an unsuspecting Favre at a table where the Green Bay Packers legend was signing autographs.
They shook hands. Favre mentioned how they had met once before.
“Yeah, right — when you fell down for him,” said Gastineau, alluding to former New York Giants star Michael Strahan — the record breaker. “I’m going to get my sack back. I’m going to get my sack back, dude.”
Favre looked bewildered.
“You probably would hurt me,” he said.
“Well, I don’t care,” Gastineau said, pointing at Favre. “You hurt me. You hurt me! You hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you,” Favre said.
“You really hurt me,” Gastineau shot back. “You really hurt me, Brett.”
At that point, Favre was escorted away by one of his handlers, leaving a seething Gastineau by himself. He was miked up by a camera crew, which was following him.
Gastineau was referring to the final game of the 2001 season, when Strahan broke Gastineau’s single-season record with a controversial sack of Favre. With 22 sacks, Gastineau held the mark from 1984 to 2001. Many believe Favre went down on purpose so Strahan could break the record with 22.5.
Gastineau was in attendance that day, graciously congratulating Strahan. After 18 years of suppressing his anger, Gastineau went public with his true feelings in a 2020 interview with ESPN.
He doubles down in the documentary.
“Anybody will tell you that Brett Favre took a dive,” Gastineau said in the documentary.
The 30 for 30 chronicles the rise and fall of the “Sack Exchange” and the complex relationship between the polarizing Gastineau and teammates Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons and the late Abdul Salaam.
Reached by phone, Gastineau explained why he confronted Favre.
“I wanted to let him know it was a trash sack,” he said.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time — many, many years,” Gastineau added. “I’ve only got one more guy to go to” — meaning Strahan, who Gastineau believes conspired with Favre on the record-breaking sack.
Gastineau had no idea that Favre would be at the show until he and his wife, Jo Ann, arrived in Chicago and saw Favre’s name on a list of attendees. Lyons, who was in Chicago and witnessed the confrontation, said he tried to convince his former teammate to stay away from Favre.
“I said, ‘Mark, let it go, just let it go. That happened years ago,'” Lyons said in a phone interview. “But he had this little crazed look in his eye.”
Later that day, Jo Ann Gastineau returned to Favre’s table to smooth things over. She said she apologized, saying her husband “didn’t mean anything by it.”
The record has been a source of anguish for Strahan as well.
“The sack record is great, absolutely phenomenal, but I almost feel like in a sense it was diminished because everyone goes, ‘Oh, Brett Favre gave you a sack,'” Strahan said in “A Football Life,” a documentary aired in 2013 by NFL Network. “I caught so much flak over it. … It’s not worth it, because everyone looks as if one sack that they question is the defining moment of my career.”
The Hall of Famer is no longer the sole holder of the single-season record, as Pittsburgh Steelers star T.J. Watt matched Strahan’s mark with 22.5 sacks in 2021.
On Tuesday, Favre posted a long thread on X, addressing what he described as “a small dustup” between him and Gastineau.
Favre said he didn’t intentionally take the sack to hurt Gastineau, saying, “There was no malice on my part.” In retrospect, Favre said he sees how the sack record might have benefitted Gastineau financially and strengthened his case for the Hall of Fame.
“A while back, he saw me at a card show and got his frustration off his chest,” Favre posted.
“It’s not the kind of moment that should be filmed and released. It was a private moment of frustration between two old football warriors.”
Favre endorsed Gastineau for the Hall of Fame.
“I hope this controversy brings attention to just how great Mark Gastineau was. He belongs in Canton.”
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