Brett Favre looks to throw the ball away during a game in 2006. / MARK HOFFMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Nearly 23 years after Michael Strahan took down Brett Favre in controversial fashion on Jan. 6, 2022 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](https://www.si.com/media/mark-gastineau-brett-favre-sack-record-confrontation) 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.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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