One of the more riveting clips concerning former Green Bay Packers quarterback, Brett Favre, emerged on Tuesday morning.
The clip shows Favre confronted by Mark Gastineau – the 4 x All Pro former New York Jets defensive end – over Favre’s decision to allegedly deliberately fall down at the end of the game and hand Michael Strahan the single-season sack record back in 2001, per ESPN.
ESPN Documentary Extract Reveals Uneasy Meeting Between Favre And Gastineau
In the exchange, Gastineau makes some pointed remarks towards Favre and the card show, stating:
“When you fell down for him…I’m going to get my sack back – I’m going to get my sack back dude”.
Favre: “You probably hurt me”
Gastineau: “Well I don’t care, you hurt me – you hurt me, you hear me?
Favre: “Yeah, I hear you”
Gastineau: “You really hurt me, you hurt me Brett”
Brett Favre Responds To Viral “The New York Sack Exchange” Clip
This clip heralds from ESPN’s 30 For 30 documentary series episode, “The New York Sack Exchange”. And after this very tense, almost saddening interaction, Favre decided to explain in further detail his relationship with the former Jet in a multi-part thread, per Favre’s X account.
Favre’s commented the following in his X thread:
“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 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 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. I had no way of knowing that then. I realize now the potential financial implications because football is far more business-oriented than when me or Mark played.”
In the very long series of tweets, Favre outlines the fact that whilst he was not deliberately trying to help Strahan – or help Gastineau, an offensive play gone rogue combined with Strahan being at the cusp of the sack record may potentially have subconsciously played a part in him falling to the ground, allowing the former New York Giant to get his record-breaking 22.5 sack to eclipse Gastineau’s 22 in 1984.
Yet, the Hall of Fame quarterback acknowledges that there were some negative financial ramifications for Gastineau in potentially partially allowing Strahan to get that extra sack – as Favre says, in an era in which footballers were not compensated to the sky-high levels they are at this point in time.
Gastineau has some just gripes, and Favre deals with his comments with considerable grace. Although it is important to point out that Gastineau did hold that record for nearly 20 years before Strahan broke it, so he certainly had his time in the sun as the NFL “sack king”.
