Mark Gastineau Thinks Brett Favre "Took a Dive" for Michael Strahan in 2001

Mark Gastineau and Brett Favre have both been out of the NFL for well over a decade now, but a recent interaction between the two of them has caused a stir online. Mark, who was a pass rusher for the New York Jets, confronted Brett over a grudge that he's held since the two of them were both playing in the NFL.

Brett then offered a response to Mark's confrontation, leading many to wonder what happened between them. Here's what we know about their recent confrontation, and what it was about.

The origins of the feud between Mark and Brett come from the 2002 game between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants when Michael Strahan broke Mark's record for sacks in a single season. Late in the fourth quarter, with Green Bay up 34-25, Brett fell down and Michael tapped him, allowing him to break the record and giving him 22.5 sacks on the season. Many thought that Brett had taken a dive or made it too easy for Michael to record his record-breaking sack.

In 2023, Mark apparently confronted Brett at a memorabilia show and said that he "hurt" him by allowing Michael to break the record. ESPN posted a clip from that conversation to promote its new 30 for 30 documentary, The New York Sack Exchange, which chronicles the season when the sack record changed hands and the continued emotion that Mark clearly has about it. As the clip circulated online, Brett took to social media to clear the air.

"I was in no way trying to hurt Mark Gastineau," Brett explained. "I was trying to close out a game and squeeze the last bit of fun out of a hard-fought game."

He added that he had called a bootleg on the play thinking that it would be open, but said that Michael beat his man and was right there ready to take him down. He added that he had never thought about how Mark might feel.

"In a different game or situation, I would have made a bigger effort to avoid the sack or TFL," the former Packers quarterback wrote. "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," he added. "In retrospect, I understand how Gastineau feels. We played a brutal game. Gastineau played during an era where guys didn’t make generational wealth."

Michael still owns the record, although Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt tied him in 2021. We'll likely learn even more about the confrontation when the documentary finally airs. Michael's final sack will always be controversial, though, even if records were made to be broken. When someone breaks through the 22.5 mark, hopefully it will happen in a slightly less controversial fashion. Regardless, it almost definitely won't involve Brett.