ESPN's "30 for 30" on the Jets' "Sack Exchange" is a clear revelation of the group

Before the sack even officially existed in the NFL, the New York Sack Exchange gathered opposing quarterbacks in bullish market numbers.

But the mystique of those 1980s New York Jets teams was a microcosm of a long-idiosyncratic franchise whose success was fleeting and often came at great cost, despite often feuding protagonists.

Separately, NFL Films and ESPN have put the spotlight on these Jets teams’ famous (and infamous) four-man defensive line in the latest installment of the Emmy Award-winning series “30 for 30,” premiering Friday night at 8 p.m. AND. And unlike the mythologizing that comes with many NFL Films projects, this is an unvarnished look at a talented but dysfunctional quartet telling their story in their own words and on their own terms.

“In general, it’s a departure from our PR-friendly past, shall we say,” co-director James Weiner told USA TODAY Sports, where the film also had an early screening.

“We were able to delve into the rawness of their relationship and their animosity and animosity. I think what allowed us to do that was really her age. I think you reach a certain point where you don’t care how people perceive you.

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“I think the fact that this story stayed in people’s minds for 40 years is what allowed us to do this.”

It was also a personal passion project for Weiner, a lifelong Jets fan and New York native who had worked at NFL Films for a quarter-century covering faded Jets stars Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam before he finally got it gang greenlit.

“I would argue that the ‘Sack Exchange’ is still the greatest thing to happen to the Jets since Joe Namath,” added Weiner, who was born after the Hall of Fame quarterback’s prime years in the 1960s.

Despite its flawed momentum, the “Sack Exchange” burst onto the scene in 1981 with monster returns, fueling the Jets’ first winning season and playoff appearance since Namath led the legendary ’68 team to the franchise’s only Super Bowl appearance. Gastineau and Klecko remain the only teammates in league history to have at least 20 sacks in the same season – although in true Jets fashion, this is an unofficial record, as sacks were not officially recorded by the NFL until 1982.

The Jets’ 66 total sacks in 1981 – the first four of which accounted for 54 – were also an unofficial mark. However, their bull market gave way to a bear market in 1984, when Chicago officially claimed the league sack record with 72, which it still owns.

But like the core players who became the iconic core of the 1985 Bears, the “Sack Exchange” had plenty of skills. And personality.

The slender Gastineau was an explosive athlete – easily recognized by his mustache, a mane of dark hair that couldn’t be contained by his helmet, and his trademark (and controversial) sack dances. He screamed on the left side and was something of a forerunner of the modern edge rusher. (He was also something of a precursor to Travis Kelce as a crossover celebrity. Gastineau’s notoriety increased when he began dating Hollywood superstar Brigitte Nielsen in 1988.)

Klecko, on the other hand, was a menace, intimidating and strong as a bull – there’s even footage of him wrestling (successfully) with a bear. During his outstanding 12-year career, he earned All-Pro honors at defensive end, tackle and nose tackle.

Lyons was the group’s only first-round draft pick and joined the Jets in 1979 after a star career working for Paul “Bear” Bryant at Alabama. He says his career began after he changed positions at Klecko, moving to defensive tackle in 1980. Salaam, always unsung but reliable, was the left DT… a figurative and literal buffer between Gastineau and the pair of Klecko-Lyons on the right side.

Method Man, a New York native from Hempstead who narrates the documentary, said: “Who were these four guys? It was like watching a superhero team being formed.”

Before it fell apart at the seams.

This wasn’t a band of brothers. The insecure Gastineau says he was afraid of Klecko, the team’s leader, who himself was annoyed by the other’s flamboyance and often selfish and distant behavior. Lyons was and is close to Klecko, but also frequently clashed with Gastineau. The calmer but steadier Salaam tried to keep them all together.

“If you’re a Jets fan, it’s a must,” Lyons told USA TODAY Sports.

“You’ll learn a lot from watching it. And you’ll also learn that if you respect each other and have the same common goal, you can work together – and the common goal we had was that we wanted to win, we wanted to be the quarterback and we wanted to do something special. And we succeeded.

“No one can take it away from us. 30 for 30 brought it back to life.”

The film follows the stratospheric rise and fall of the “Sack Exchange,” which led the Jets to the AFC Championship Game during the strike-shortened 1982 season. But then they wouldn’t reach the Super Bowl. Or ever. A heartbreaking double-overtime loss to the Cleveland Browns in the 1986 divisional playoff round – Gastineau’s personal foul on Bernie Kosar late in regulation helped the Browns send the game to sudden death – was virtually the last hurray of the team.

“The sad thing about the whole thing is that we were teammates for so many years but we didn’t really get to know each other. “We didn’t socialize off the field, we didn’t socialize during the week either,” Lyons said, sharing that Gastineau did much of his training at the time at a gym outside the Jets’ Long Island facility.

“We never had a chance to find out who Mark Gastineau was, and I don’t think Mark really has any idea who I am or who Joe Klecko is.

“That’s sad.”

As is the plight of Salaam, formerly Larry Faulk, whose name has been translated as “Soldier of Peace.” He recently died at the age of 71 after years of deteriorating health. The Sack Exchange’s least known player, Salaam, Gastineau’s best friend on the team, was considered the glue of the group until he was replaced after the 1983 season.

“(Salaam) was the peacemaker in 1981, and he was the peacemaker in 2024,” Weiner said, admitting that it still wasn’t easy to get the four men together for a meeting at the New York Stock Exchange, where some Memorable marketing efforts took place for the Sack Exchange four decades earlier, before Salaam’s death in October.

“He was in the thick of it, and I think when Abdul Salaam was traded and left the team, that was the beginning of the Sack Exchange’s decline. He’s certainly a key figure in this story.”

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It’s also a story with side effects, particularly some deeply troubling personal demons that Gastineau shares. His recently revealed confrontation with Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, whom Gastineau blames for handing his single-season sack record (22 in 1984, when the teams played 16 games) to Michael Strahan in 2001 highlights his inability to shake off the past and the obsession with personal fame often made him a pariah in his own dressing room.

IS MARK GASTINEAU A HALL OF FAMER? Marty Lyons says he’s not sure

“We didn’t like each other, and we both said that,” said Klecko, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023 after a 35-year wait. We are giving him new attention and breathing new life into the “30 for 30” project .

“But I’ve said it in the past – it made both of us (he and Gastineau) better.”

But this is also a story about love and redemption and, perhaps, about putting the past behind them for men who have rarely spent time together as teammates in the decades since their retirement.

“The stock market shoot became a group therapy session for me,” co-director Ken Rodgers told USA TODAY Sports. “It may not have solved the problems, but it brought them to the table and allowed them to just admit, ‘Hey, there are some good and bad things in our history, and we are who we are now.’ I don’t think anyone will watch this movie and think anything other than, “Wow, that’s the truth behind relationships.” Relationships are messy, they’re complicated.

“I just feel like this film was honest. And I give credit to these guys for not trying to present a different (or) sanitized story. …You’re at the age now where you have to deal with it and let it go, otherwise it will eat you up.

“To sugarcoat it, it wouldn’t be a realistic representation of what it’s like to be a Jets fan and love these guys. The realistic portrayal is that this is just another chapter in a frustrating story, but still we can’t help but love it.”

A story from the 1980s ends, fittingly, with Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” as the outro. It appears that the remaining members of the Sack Exchange, hit hard by Salaam’s death, have finally found something resembling a lasting peace.

“Every Sunday we lined up together and went out and competed as a unit,” said Lyons, 67, who is grateful that the film shines a light on his former glory and his regrets for his children, now in their 30s and 40s However, they were too young to enjoy his heyday.

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ESPN’s “30 for 30” on the Jets’ “Sack Exchange” is a clear revelation of the group

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