Nearly two decades after Brett Favre surrendered sack to Michael Strahan, Mark Gastineau feels record should still be his

Former New York Jets pass rusher Mark Gastineau told ESPN.com's Rich Cimini that he feels he was cheated out of the NFL single-season sack record, more than 18 years after Michael Strahan's sack in the final game of the 2001 season — seemingly with help from Brett Favre.

Gastineau's 22 sacks in 1984 stood until that game in early 2002. Favre folded to the ground with Strahan approaching, giving the Giants pass rusher 22.5 for the season. Tight end Bubba Franks, who missed the block because he said he thought it would be a running play, let Strahan close in with ease.

Gastineau was at the game that day and congratulated Strahan, then had kept silent on the issue.

"It's my record, and I want it to be known that it's my record," Gastineau said in the story. "I'm not going to say, 'I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.' It's my record."

"This is on my head all the time. It goes through my head all the time. I want to clear things up."

Gastineau, now 63, said he was inspired after hearing a recent interview with Pete Rose, who petitioned Major League Baseball for reinstatement, to correct the wrongs of the past. He's also battled colon cancer.

Gastineau's total has since been matched by Jared Allen in 2011 and Justin Houston in 2014, but nobody else has surpassed the mark. 

Strahan has said the play may not have been worth it, given the way the moment has been tarnished. He discussed the topic in "A Football Life," a 2013 documentary produced by the NFL Network. 

"I caught so much flak over it. ... It's not worth it, because everyone looks as if one sack that they question is the defining moment of my career," Strahan said.

Favre, who was friendly with Strahan, has never publicly admitted he took a dive. After the game, he said neither falling to the turf nor orchestrating the broken play was an intentional act.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Dale Hoffman, who covered the Packers game in 2001, wasn't fooled. From his column in the following morning's newspaper:

It may be another 17 years before the NFL sack record is broken, time enough for the statute of limitations to expire on fraud.

Not that Michael Strahan did anything wrong Sunday. He just didn't do enough right to be where he is.

By all accounts a fine American and an exceptional crusher of quarterbacks, the New York Giants star enters league annals as Brett Favre's favorite charity. No asterisk will follow his name but space has been provided for a bright green bow.

The queen of England ascended the throne with less enthusiasm than Favre displayed while taking a seat for Strahan's benefit 2 minutes 42 seconds before it would have been too late. The quarterback claimed he was trying to remain upright, but if he'd had any more trouble keeping a straight face, he would be spending today in plastic surgery.

"It looked like I had the edge till I got run down," Favre said. "Michael was right there. Call it what you want."

How about road apples, or something similarly southern and genteel?

Candor was a casualty all over the Green Bay locker room, and with it credibility. Records are made to be broken, not donated, and the Packers' generosity made Strahan's historical moment more lame than heartwarming.

"A sack is a sack is a sack is a sack," Mark Gastineau said again and again and again and again, as if redundancy could make this a victimless crime. "He got the record. Don't start taking it away from him now."

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.