There’s an ESPN “30 for 30” premiering Friday about the “New York Sack Exchange,” the New York Jets’ pass rush of the ’80s. It’s narrated by Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan, so you know it’s good.

One of the issues featured in the documentary is the theft of the NFL single-season sack record from the Jets’ Mark Gastineau, who had 22 sacks in 1984.

That mark got broken in 2001 when Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre laid down to gift the New York Giants’ Michael Strahan a sack in the dying moments of the season’s final game. Favre obviously allowed Strahan to sack him.

That gave Strahan a tainted total of 22 1/2, a number the Steelers’ T.J. Watt tied in 2021.

Somebody tell J.J. Watt. He can tweet constantly about his brother being wronged and proclaim T.J. the real sack king. Maybe sell T-shirts.

What Favre did stinks no less today.

Gastineau made that clear when he accosted Favre at a memorabilia show last year. He threatened to sack Favre right then and there, causing Favre to quickly escape the confrontation.

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 video is part of the “30 for 30.” When it got on social media earlier this week, Favre posted a clumsy denial/apology via Twitter.

I want to clear the air on the footage released showing a small dustup between myself and Mark Gastineau, the former New York Jet, so here’s a ????. (1)

— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) December 11, 2024

Favre is a career dirtbag. He got accused of diverting public funds in Mississippi. His alleged sexual harassment of former Jets sideline reporter Jenn Sterger somehow kiboshed her career but left Favre unblemished.

Gastineau is 100% right to be angry.

Strahan should be embarrassed by how he got the record and has admitted as much.

Strahan has enjoyed incredible success in television since retiring from football. Perhaps Gastineau sees himself having done that had he kept the sack record. (That’s delusional, but the video of Gastineau complaining to Favre doesn’t put Gastineau in a rational light.)

Perhaps continuing to hold that sack record till Watt broke it would have enabled Gastineau to make more money at card shows, comic cons, signings, etc.

Maybe Gastineau would be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (But probably not. He never even reached the semifinal stage of the process.)

Gastineau was proud of that record. He held it for 17 years. But it was stolen from him. It was dishonest. Like Gastineau said to Favre, “Anybody will tell you Brett Favre took a dive.”

The NFL should have overturned that sack then. The NFL should go back and take it away now.

If that happened now, Favre and Strahan could be accused of fixing a prop bet. They might get suspended.

If that happened now, social media would go nuts. When New Orleans got jobbed by a non-call on pass interference in the 2018 season’s NFC Championship Game, public outcry convinced the NFL to make pass interference a reviewable call in 2019, an experiment that lasted just one year.

Gastineau got cheated. What Favre did was crooked. It was cringe then. It’s cringe now.

Sports have to be contested 100% on the square. What Favre and Strahan conspired to do — however unwittingly on Strahan’s part — should be corrected. They cheated football and Gastineau.

Take away Strahan’s sack of Favre.

If what happened isn’t a big deal, then records aren’t a big deal.

Note that T.J. Watt had a sack and a half-sack taken away from him in the 2021 season’s last game, a 16-13 overtime victory at Baltimore.

The latter was negated when Cam Heyward was penalized for unnecessary roughness, the former chalked off because Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley fumbled and recovered before Watt tackled him, thereby making it an aborted play. That’s why Watt doesn’t have sole possession of the single-season sack record.

A quarterback hated to see them coming ????@30for30's ‘The New York Sack Exchange’ | December 13 at 8 PM ET on ESPN ???? pic.twitter.com/tsI1ViUXzX

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) November 20, 2024

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