Days earlier than the Jets’ ESPN documentary premiered, former defensive finish Mark Gastineau’s feud with Brett Favre made waves on social media on Tuesday.
At a Chicago sports activities memorabilia present final 12 months as a part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary about “The New York Sack Exchange,” which premieres Friday at 8 p.m. ET, Gastineau confronted Favre and accused him of letting Giants defensive finish Michael Strahan sack him to interrupt his document in 2001.
“You saw it on the football field as a sack master celebrating and he is still as passionate about what he feels and believes. In retrospect, maybe I’m not as surprised that he would have that moment with Favre now that we’ve experience so much time with him and done interviews with him and seen his career.
“At the time, it was totally unexpected that happened.”
In the course of the interplay in Chicago, Favre and Gastineau shook palms, and Favre talked about to the previous defensive finish how they’d met earlier than.
“Yeah, right — when you fell down for [Strahan],” mentioned Gastineau.
“I’m going to get my sack back. I’m going to get my sack back, dude.”
A shocked Favre replied, “You probably would hurt me,” and Gastineau shouted again, “Well, I don’t care. You hurt me. You hurt me! You hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you,” Favre replied.
“You really hurt me. You really hurt me, Brett,” Gastineau mentioned to Favre earlier than a handler escorted him away.
Gastineau is clearly nonetheless offended in regards to the ultimate sport of the 2002 season between the Packers and Giants when Strahan broke his controversial single-season sack document (22). Many imagine Favre fell on objective to offer Strahan the document of twenty-two.5.
On the time, Gastineau attended the sport and hugged Strahan afterward. Nonetheless, he later expressed his emotions about Strahan breaking the document in an ESPN interview in 2020.
In the course of the documentary, Gastineau mentioned in regards to the incident, “Anybody will tell you that Brett Favre took a dive.”
Steelers move rusher T.J. Watt equaled Strahan’s document of twenty-two.5 in 2021. Favre addressed the incident between him and Gastineau on X in an extended thread. The three-time NFL MVP mentioned he didn’t deliberately take the sack to harm Gastineau.
“There was no malice on my part,” Favre mentioned within the submit. He additionally endorsed Gastineau for the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame.
“The Favre-Strahan sack record, there are a lot of people who think that the league wanted Strahan to have the sack record. He was a popular player among a lot of people, the league, and opponents, and Gastineau was not a popular player. So, you had two popular players involved in this controversial incident and Gastineau was perceived as the bad guy back then, so there wasn’t much sympathy for him.
“Twenty-three years later, we look at it a little bit differently perhaps.”
“The New York Sack Exchange” 30 for 30 examines the rise and fall of the Jets’ line of defense from the late Nineteen Seventies by the Nineteen Eighties. It additionally particulars the relationships between Gastineau, teammates Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons, and the late Abdul Salaam, who died in October.
“I’m sorry, he won’t get to see the finished film,” Weiner mentioned about Salaam. “But I’m happy he was a big part of it. I keep telling Ken, the timing of this thing was unbelievable.”
The documentary is narrated by musician, actor, and lifelong Jets fan Technique Man, and the movie is directed by Rodgers (The Tuck Rule, The Two Payments, 4 Falls of Buffalo) and Weiner (The Brady 6, SEC Storied: Saturday Night time Lights,), who grew up in Lengthy Island in Port Washington.
Rodgers needs folks to remove a particular message when watching the documentary.
“For me, it’s never too late to forgive past transgressions between people,” he mentioned. “It’s really hard to get along with people you work with because you’re all striving towards different individual goals at the same time. Not everybody that works together gets along, let alone out in the real world or at the supermarket.
“These guys disliked each other on some level more than most people dislike their coworkers. It was real, the anger and frustration, so much so, they’re still working through it, but they are still working through it.
“I’m sitting at a reunion with somebody 30 years from now, I’m not going to care about those little transgressions that make me upset. The impact the film had on me was to reevaluate my work relationships and realize that if these guys can sit down and talk with each other and work things out, then anybody can.”
Initially Printed: December 11, 2024 at 6:13 PM EST
