On Tuesday, ESPN got a lot of attention for an advance clip from their latest 30 for 30. That documentary, called The New York Sack Exchange, covers the New York Jets’ defensive line of the early 1980s, including Mark Gastineau. And this advance clip showed Gastineau confronting Brett Favre at a memorabilia show in 2023, blasting Favre for going down easily against Michael Strahan at the end of the 2001 season (in a Jan. 6, 2002 game) for the sack that put Strahan over Gastineau for the official NFL single-season sack record (22.5 versus Gastineau’s 22; T.J. Watt tied Strahan’s record in 2021):
22 years after losing the NFL single-season sack record, Mark Gastineau confronted Brett Favre for ‘taking a dive’ on the record-breaking play.
Catch the latest @30for30, ‘The New York Sack Exchange,’ on ESPN and ESPN+ starting Dec. 13. pic.twitter.com/Oz5KRwVcy7
— ESPN (@espn) December 10, 2024
That clip went viral on social media, understandable considering the way that this sack has been dissected over the years. And Favre eventually responded with a long X thread, particularly notable for both saying “Maybe it crossed my mind to help Strahan” (in the fourth tweet) and for saying he understands Gastineau’s anger over this now, and wants to see Gastineau in the Pro Football Hall of Fame:
Back in 2002, when Michael Strahan sacked me at the end of a game that we had wrapped up, I was in no way trying to hurt Mark Gastineau.
I was trying to close out a game and squeeze the last bit of fun out of a hard-fought game.
(2)
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) December 11, 2024
In a different game or situation, I would have made a bigger effort to avoid the sack or TFL.
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…
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) December 11, 2024
There was no malice on my part.
Mark was a great player.
My understanding is he’s a great guy and a fun teammate, a guy who played with the kind of joy and passion I tried to mimic. I understand his frustration, but I’m not his enemy.
A while back, he saw me at a card show…
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) December 11, 2024
Mark definitely left an indelible mark on the game.
I hope this controversy brings attention to just how great Mark Gastineau was.
He belongs in Canton.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Brett.
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) December 11, 2024
That seems like a pretty solid response from Favre, especially in terms of his expressed empathy for Gastineau’s position on this and his stumping for Gastineau for the Hall of Fame. However, it’s notable to see Favre making those points not shortly after the card show confrontation, but more than a year later, and only after that footage saw wide release and drew a lot of comment. And it’s perhaps especially notable to see Favre openly admit “In a different game or situation, I would have made a bigger effort to avoid the sack or TFL” and “Maybe it crossed my mind to help Strahan,” as he defended that sack as legitimate immediately post-game and has continued to do so several times over the years.
A significant part of this is how Favre’s play here and Strahan’s subsequent record was wildly controversial at the time. It saw media takes such as “low-level fraud” (Mark Kreidler in an ESPN.com column) and “It may be another 17 years before the NFL sack record is broken, time enough for the statute of limitations to expire on fraud”
(Dale Hoffman in The Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel). Imagine how much stronger the takes would be in our current greatly-expanded legal gambling environment, where players’ game and season-long sack totals are often subjects of major bets.
And so it’s wild that Favre is admitting, contrary to his past protestations, that he would have done more to avoid this sack in a different situation. And he’s also admitting that there might even have been the thought in his head to help Strahan get this record.
Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean Strahan wouldn’t have gotten this record if Favre had “done more.” The play here saw Strahan come through on Favre unblocked (whether that was deliberate or not is another matter of debate, with tight end Bubba Franks missing a block on Strahan and saying he thought it was a running play), and he may well have been able to wrap him up for the sack even if Favre had tried his utmost. But Favre certainly pulled off plenty of pocket escapes over the years, and it’s not inconceivable he might have made one here if he had been trying his best.
Maybe the key part of this whole situation is its illustration of how sports history continues to matter, and sometimes even sees new developments decades later. Favre’s comments here are the clearest indication he’s ever given that he wasn’t doing his utmost to avoid Strahan’s record-setting sack.
That’s probably not enough to prompt a change to the official NFL record books. That’s especially true considering that Strahan is no longer the sole holder of the record, and also considering that “player effort to avoid a sack” is not something that’s been universally measured across situations, nor something that could be. But it might bring back at least some of the conversations around that record’s legitimacy. And it definitely might help Gastineau’s Hall of Fame campaign. And, as Favre noted in his thread, that status or lack thereof is huge for many former players economically, and that’s further shown by the Hall of Fame helmets Favre was signing at this show.
At any rate, this whole situation is great promotion for The New York Sack Exchange (which debuts Friday, Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+, and covers Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons and the late Abdul Salaam as well as Gastineau). And it also speaks to the value of doing sports documentaries, including on decades-old subjects. This one clip from this documentary alone seems to have prompted Favre to change his public stance on Strahan’s sack. And that’s just one of the many cases where documentaries have had an impact on current events.
[Brett Favre on X]