An Unusual Football Rift Is Playing Out With Ex-Stars

He was gracious about it at the time, but two decades years after losing the NFL's sack record, Mark Gastineau is angry. The animosity is evident in a trailer for an ESPN documentary in which the 68-year-old Gastineau confronts Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. Gastineau thinks Favre deliberately allowed Michael Strahan to sack him during the final game of the 2001 season, reports the Athletic. The sack gave Strahan 22.5 for the season, eclipsing the mark of 22 Gastineau had set in 1984.

• "You fell down for him," Gastineau tells Favre, who seems stunned at the confrontation at a memorabilia show. "I'm going to get my sack back. ... You hurt me, Brett." In Gastineau's view, losing the record has played a role in him not getting into the Hall of Fame. He says he also plans to confront Strahan in person.

• Favre responds: "At no point was I thinking about hurting Gastineau," wrote Favre in a tweeted thread this week, per Yahoo Sports. "Maybe it crossed my mind to help Strahan. I didn't think it through. That wasn't my forte at the time."
• Favre, II: "I understand how Gastineau feels," Favre adds. "We played a brutal game. Gastineau played during an era where guys didn't make generational wealth. I see now how being the Sack King would elevate his value at card shows, strengthen his case for the Hall of Fame, increase his demand as a public speaker." He concludes by saying Gastineau should be in the Hall with him.
• Strahan: ESPN notes that Strahan himself has been none too thrilled with how things have played out. "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 2013. "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."

(More Brett Favre stories.)