Michael Strahan's infamous ejection of Brett Favre is part of the ESPN documentary

Michael Strahan of the New York Giants breaks the single-season record when he sacks Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre in the 2001 season finale in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

A new installment of the wildly popular sports documentary series “30 for 30” will feature footage of a thrilling encounter between New York Jets pass rusher Mark Gastineau and former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

“The New York Sack Exchange,” premiering at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN, features footage of Gastineau’s confrontation with Favre at a 2023 memorial show in Chicago. The documentary will also follow two other members of New York’s vaunted “Sack Exchange” defensive line from the early 1980s.

Gastineau remains upset that Favre’s actions in early 2002 allowed his NFL single-season sack record to fall by the wayside, giving the New York Giants’ Michael Strahan the honor instead.

“You really hurt me,” Gastineau said during the encounter, shortly before Favre was taken away. “You really hurt me, Brett.”

Based on the video excerpt posted by ESPN, Gastineau certainly seems to believe that losing the sack record was at least partially a contributing factor to Gastineau’s exclusion from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and his former teammates don’t necessarily seem to agree with his frustration.

In 2020, Gastineau told ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini that he felt cheated out of the record when Strahan fell to Favre for a sack in the final game of the 2001 season, giving the Giants Hall of Famer 22.5 for the season. creeps past the mark of 22 set by Gastineau in 1984.

Strahan’s 22.5 sacks have since been matched by the Pewaukee native and another future Hall of Famer, former University of Wisconsin star TJ Watt, now with the Steelers. Watt’s team played 17 games in 2021, one more than Strahan or Gastineau had to work with, although Watt missed one of those games due to injury and played in 16 games.

Favre famously threw himself to the ground as Strahan approached, giving the Giants pass rusher the sack he needed. Tight end Bubba Franks, who missed the block because he said it would be a running play, allowed Strahan to get to it with ease.

Gastineau was at the game that day and congratulated Strahan, but then remained silent on the subject.

“It’s my record, and I want it to be known that it’s my record,” Gastineau said in 2020. “I’m not going to say, ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.’ It’s my record.

“That’s constantly going through my head. It’s constantly on my mind. I want to clear things up.”

Gastineau’s total score of 22 was achieved by Jared Allen in 2011 and Justin Houston in 2014. Sacks became an official statistic in the NFL in 1982. That means Detroit’s Al Baker’s 23 in 1978 can only be considered an unofficial record. Deacon Jones unofficially reached 22nd twice, in 1964 and 1968.

Strahan said the play may not have been worth it given the way the moment was marred. He discussed the topic in “A Football Life,” a 2013 NFL Network documentary.

“I have had to take so much criticism because of that. … It’s not worth it because everyone looks like a sack they question is the defining moment of my career,” Strahan said.

Favre, who was friends with Strahan, has defended the sack as legitimate. After the game, he said that neither the fall on the turf nor the orchestration of the interrupted play was an intentional act.

Dale Hoffman, a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who covered the Packers game in 2001, was not fooled. From his column in the following morning’s newspaper:

It may take another 17 years to break the NFL sack record, enough time for the statute of limitations to expire on fraud charges. Not that Michael Strahan did anything wrong on Sunday. He just hasn’t done enough right to be where he is. A good American in every sense and a quarterback destroyer extraordinaire, the New York Giants star will go down in league annals as Brett Favre’s favorite charity. There is no asterisk following his name, but there is room for a light green bow. The Queen of England ascended the throne with less enthusiasm than Favre showed when she took a seat in Strahan’s favor 2 minutes and 42 seconds before it would have been too late. The quarterback claimed he tried to stay upright, but if he had had any more trouble keeping a straight face, he would have had plastic surgery today. “It looked like I was ahead until I got shut down,” Favre said. “Michael was right there. Call it whatever you want.” How about Road Apples or something similarly Southern and posh? Throughout the Green Bay locker room, openness was a sacrifice, and with it credibility. Records are meant to be broken, not donated, and the Packers’ generosity made Strahan’s historic moment more lame than heartwarming. “A sack is a sack is a sack is a sack,” Mark Gastineau said over and over again when dismissal could make this a victimless crime. “He has the record. Don’t take it away from him now.”

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