Mark Gastineau Continues To Harbor Strong Feelings Towards Favre and Strahan

Published on December 14th, 2024 11:00 am EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


On January 6th, 2002, Michael Strahan of the New York Giants broke the all-time single season sack record (official).

Mark Gastineau, who previously set the record with 22 sacks in 1984, continues to harbor bitterness towards Michael Strahan and Brett Favre, as evidenced by a recent confrontation between Favre and Gastineau.

Why is Gastineau mad?

At the end of the January 6th, 2002 game between the Giants and the Packers, the two teams seemingly had an agreement to get Strahan the final sack necessary to break the record.

After the ball snapped, nobody on the Packers' offensive line laid a finger on Strahan as he jogged up to Favre, who had rolled to the right.

Strahan, at less than full speed, ran up to Favre, who immediately went down to the ground, giving up the sack.

Strahan had broken the single season sack record.

At the time, Gastineau was congratulatory of Strahan. His resentment, however, would grow over the years, as he felt that Strahan hadn't cleanly broken the record, which had stood for 17 years.

As the years ticked on, Gastineau felt as though losing the record had helped to keep him out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Gastineau's numbers certainly backed up his feeling that he should have been put into the Pro Football Hall of Fame - after all, he was a 4x First-Team All-Pro and 5x Pro Bowler.

Gastineau believes that losing the single season sack mark helped to keep him out of the Hall, though his detractors will point to his legal issues that came post-retirement.

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There is no doubt that there was an agreement to help get Strahan the all-time sack record, and Favre has even alluded to that in recent interviews.

The interesting point is that even if Strahan hadn't broken the record in 2002, T.J. Watt would have broken Gastineau's record in 2021, as he finished the season with 22.5 sacks.

Does Gastineau have legitimate beef or should he simply get over it at this point?