Looting Records and Reputations

Back in the day I told the tale of how Mark Gastineau dishonestly had his NFL single season sack record taken from him. See below. I believe he would like to have it back now.

via GIPHY

Records are made to be broken, and no place is this sentiment more truthful than in sports. Some records appear fragile when they are set, seemingly destined to fall into the hands of another within a brief matter of time. On the other end of the spectrum are those records that seem impenetrable to the assaults of mere mortals. A perfect example of the latter scenario was the 70-homerun season posted by Mark McGwire that eclipsed the long standing mark of 61 set by Roger Maris. Many felt that McGwire would hold the record for as long as Maris had possessed it, or perhaps for half as long, or at least for a full decade. But appearances can be deceiving. Barry Bonds came along and smacked 72 balls out of the park a mere three years after Big Mac’s season to remember.

In my youth I had the privilege of watching a record set by a man who played for my favorite football team. This athlete had an extremely brash style that did not sit well with many, but I for one enjoyed every minute of his remarkable success on the gridiron. Not everyone was happy about Barry Bonds’ assault on McGwire’s still fresh homerun record, for Big Mac was an immensely popular player while the somewhat surly Bonds is less universally liked. It has been conjectured that disappointment at the brevity of time his name stood atop the record books hastened McGwire’s retirement. This could serve to even further diminish Bond’s popularity.  But whereas Barry Bonds may be less than loved by all, Mark Gastineau was flat out hated during the years he displayed his mastery of quarterback sacking. Gastineau played in a less selfish era than the current one. When he was in his prime, athletes in team sports were not supposed to draw excessive attention to their own individual exploits. Yet that is precisely what Mark did. He was setting a trend that would take a little while to be embraced. You could say he was a man ahead of his time, and such men are often disdained. Remember, once upon a time Muhammad Ali was largely despised for his braggadocio in the ring. Today he’s the beloved subject of a big budget movie.

Nowadays, when a football player scores a touchdown it is routine procedure for him to launch into a celebratory dance or over the top pantomime, just so long as it doesn’t cross the line into taunting. Some of the more elaborate performances look as if they were choreographed by the people who make pop groups like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys appear to have such wonderful rhythm. Athletes like Deion Sanders came to prominence at a time after showboating had become acceptable and downright mainstream. Advertisers jumped on board to help cultivate the images of such crowd pleasing athletes, making a lot of people rich in the process. Free agency has made allegiances to players more practical than loyalty to particular teams. The more flamboyant an athlete is, the easier he is for Middle America to recognize, which makes him the easier to market, and ultimately, the easier to cash in on.

Back when Mark Gastineau was invading opponents’ backfields, however, he was supposed to be a representative of the New York Jets first and foremost, a member no more prominent than the others. But when he recorded a sack and then proceeded to perform his infamous dance, all eyes instinctively drew to him alone. This was certainly not appreciated by the quarterback who had just been thrown to the ground, the offensive lineman who had failed to hold his block, or by fans of the opposition. And as it turned out, the displeasure Gastineau inspired spread much wider than to those most directly affected by his behavior, wider than he probably ever imagined it would. Pretty much everyone in the NFL grew annoyed by the spotlight Mark cast upon himself, including his teammates.

Over the years, Mark Gastineau continued to wreak havoc on his reputation. Most of this harm was done off the field, much of it after his career was already over, and it often involved battered women and prison sentences, not to mention Brigitte Nielson. Look up “jerk” in the dictionary and nobody would be surprised to find Mark’s photograph. He became a sad joke, a parody of conceit and lack of control. He would screw up, promise to sin no more because he was now rehabilitated, then screw up all over again. Yet one noble thing could not be wrenched from his grasp for more years than expected. Gastineau had recorded a greater number of sacks in a single NFL season than anyone else.

This season, New York’s other football team followed up a Super Bowl appearance with a disappointing failure to even qualify for the playoffs. The Giants stumbled into week 17 playing for only one thing other than pride and paycheck. One of their own, Michael Strahan, entered the game only one sack short of breaking the long standing record. Seemingly greater pass rushers had come and gone in the intervening years without eclipsing Gastineau’s mark. Now at last the record appeared to be within striking distance. Mark’s most notable accomplishment was clearly in peril. Strahan had four quarters in which to get to Green Bay’s Brett Favre just once.

The passing of the crown seemed inevitable at the game’s start. Yet the big moment was delayed time and time again, until there were only a couple of minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Packers owned a comfortable lead, so their interests lay in doing no more than literally running out the clock. Executing several consecutive handoffs was the most logical game plan, obvious to the most casual football fan. There was no reason for Brett Favre to put himself, or his team’s lead and playoff position, in harm’s way. So everyone watching was shocked when he inexplicably failed to hand the ball off to a running back. Instead he rolled right, as in right into the path of an unblocked Michael Strahan. Favre slid safely to the ground, Michael tapped him to record the sack, then dropped to his knees in a posture that suggested he was weeping tears of joy.


The set up fooled no one. Afterwards it was revealed that a running play had indeed been called, and Green Bay’s running back was fully expecting to be handed the ball. But Brett chose to do a favor for his friend, a man with a stellar reputation who is liked and admired by just about all of his peers. Michael Strahan became the single season sack leader. The record had been removed in dubious fashion from the hands of former public enemy number one, a man with few friends, not even amongst his own teammates. A man fighting so many demons that he wasn’t even capable of liking himself, much less earning the fondness of others. The sack record had become a popularity contest, not an accomplishment to be earned but a gift to be bestowed on the winner, and such a contest Mark Gastineau will always lose.

I still consider Mark Gastineau to be the NFL’s greatest ever sack master. Perhaps I’m partial due to the fond memories elicited by the legendary Sack Exchange. Those Jets teams of yesteryear, like all Jets teams since, were not quite good enough to go all the way. But their defensive line certainly did its job of putting fear into many a quarterback’s heart. As for the best player on that line, he may not have been very popular among his co-workers. He may not have had the largest fan club. At home, he certainly did not play well with others. There is no doubt that he made some bad choices and did some very bad deeds. Mark Gastineau is a convicted felon, and for this, I suppose being screwed out of an NFL record is mild punishment indeed. Then again, had he not already been punished by the law? Mark claims to be a new man now, a born-again Christian. I personally have no reason to doubt his sincerity. But he is such a notorious repeat offender of heinous conduct that there is plenty of room for his doubters to congregate in. Ironically, Michael Strahan is the man now being vilified in the press, the one who has alienated Giants fans and teammates alike with his contract demands. The line between hero and villain in sports is a constantly shifting one. It is far more difficult to grasp the truth than to create a myth, whether the creation be one of good or one of evil.

Yet there are certain truths that cannot be stolen from Mark Gastineau as easily as his record was. Like him or not, there’s no denying that he sure could sack, and when he did get to the quarterback, self-servingly or not, that white boy sure could dance.