Strahan's retirement and Gastineau regrets

HOF stands for Hall of Fame, not Hall of Femme, or Hall of Failure. Gastineau succumbed to La Femme Fatale, drugs and many other things. Strahan belongs and Gastineau does not............nuf said.

 

Strahan's also out $15 million due to his transgressions with the ladies.

 

Fell down for him ? That's very polite. Favre took a major dive.
Phoniest "sack" I've ever seen.

 

It was but neither Strahan or MG deserve to hold the sack record because in the era of big time sacks, the didn't keep records. Deacon Jones was much better off the edge than either of them and MG couldn't carry our own Jerry Philbins jock when it came to getting to the QB.

Fact is Strahan was much better than MG. The year MG had 22 the next 4 guys had 18.5, 17.5, 16 and 15. When Strahan got his 22.5 the next guy had 15, 14.5, 13.5, 13.5. Short drops more 2 TE sets more dump off passes and WCO have reduced the sack opportunities along with more defensive packages that put more DB on the field putting more OL on DL. Add to that the much more liberal rules on extension of the arms and outright grabbing by OL men and todays DE have it tougher.

For their careers MG had 74 Sacks in 137 games Strahan 141.5 in 216. Much better % for Strahan.

MG was a big time player for a short time but he was very one demensional and had a great player next to him most of his career. Over all based on talent and performance, MG was a dissapointment with some great moments, Strahan is a HOF caliber player who contributed big time to the Giants SB.

 

Yes, but Strahan also went up against the less-athletic RT's, a lot of whom aren't great at handling speed rushers. He was a rare player as a LDE.

 

The problem with the original post is that one of them is the all-time single season sack king and the other one is just a gap toothed jack-ass.

If Favre didn't take the dive Strahan has no prize. Gastineau is still the sack king.

 

For what it's worth, at his press conference today that he didn't care about sacks as much as he did playing the run. When asked if there was a signature play, he said to watch him play the run on back-to-back plays. There are plenty of pass-rushers in this league, but he was a complete defensive end. He was also a leader on that team; the reactions of players learning of his retirement (Justin Tuck specifically) show just how much he was looked up to and how much he'll be missed.

As far as Strahan going up against not as talented RTs goes, keep in mind that Philly traded for All-Pro Jon Runyan just to stop Strahan. He was also a driving force behind the Redskins drafting Jon Jansen. He faced talented tackles year in and year out in the NFC East. Also, it's not like RTs were left to handle him one-on-one. He was chipped with TEs or RBs frequently. I do concede that LTs are better pass-blockers than RTs, but the fact that he played the strong side should not make Strahan's career any less impressive.

 

Dude, and I ask this genuinely and not to be bitter, but why are you so upset about it? It's not like he throws the fact around or brags about it.

 

Jet fans are annoyed by that record because the way it was broken was cheesy and by of all people, a Giant. Doesn't take away from Strahan's accomplishments, and if he had registered a real sack that day no Jet fan would care. But we don't have much else in the way of titles or records, so to have one ripped off in such a dubious way rubs a lot of us the wrong way. I never liked Strahan anyway, that's not why but it didn't help.

 

I believe it was actually our very own Bubba Franks that made the quote.

As Jet fans, we don't have much to boost our team, having the MG record stripped by a dive play and a vaGiant none the less, is a bitter pill to swallow.

 

If I remember right, Green Bay's O-linemen were pissed about it. They took pride in not giving up the sack and record, then Favre gave it up anyway at the end of the game. Bush league. The fault is really more with Favre, when you think about it, but Strahan did carry on a bit much with it that day too. Odd to think, given all their reputations and images, that Mark Gastineau would show the most class of the three guys in the stadium that day.

 

Look, Gastineau disgraced himself. Plain and simple.

Stray hung in there with one team, through whatever, for fifteen (15) years, and then he won a Super Bowl. Against Tom Brady and the Pats. And he also sacked Tom Brady (along with busting on him a few other times as well).

I'm very happy for Stray, especially since his greatest win came against the Pats and Brady.

But his ability to hang in there against the pass and the run, whatever came at him, is what it is all about for the defensive end.

If you're a DE, you've got to be good against both the pass and the run.

And Stray certainly was great against both.

By the way, Stray never said he was a frigging angel -- just a football player, and a tough-ass one at that.

Gastineau should have been graceful when his silly record was broken. It was going to happen sooner or later, and this would be the ONE TIME when Gastineau would have access to that stage again, if only for a few seconds. Thankfully, he took advantage of it without letting that 15 seconds more of fame get the better of him for a change.

I've rarely been more disappointed in a football player than I was with Mark Gastineau.

 

The rest of your post I agree with, but this is a bit harsh. He maybe didn't reach his full potential, at least what we thought it could and should be, but he was a great football player for the Jets (and only the Jets) for ten years. He made the Pro Bowl a few times, went deep in the playoffs with the Jets a couple times, set a record that lasted for almost 20 years and is still one of the best D-linemen we've ever had. Far from disgracing himself.

Off the field he wasn't great, but he was never a huge problem like a lot of the guys in the league today who nobody thinks twice about. In fact, most of what people hated about Gastineau is the kind of stuff nobody bats an eye at today. Now everyone has a sack dance, a TD dance or some preplanned nonsense and you don't hear shit about it.

 

He did acknowledge that in his post. It's a tricky read, I read it the way you did at first, too.

 

I actually met Michael when he was signing autographs at the UES Best Buy a few years back. I asked him if he would consider coming over to the Jets, but he said "no".

 

My disappointment with Gastineau has nothing to do with his gracious behavior when Stray broke that record. Gastineau let a lot of people down when he blew up, showing his true colors, pussy-whipped by Euro-trash.

 

The quote did come from Franks.

There was to be a play fake to the left and Favre would roll out to the right to throw or run.
I don't recall Favre making any attempt to pass the ball. At that point, the game had been wrapped up by Green Bay and I think Favre was looking for Strahan to get the record.

The official scorekeeper(s) was either a Strahan fan or a moron.
If the scorekeeper(s) felt that Favre was going to throw the ball, they were within their right to call it a sack if Favre dove or slid to avoid receiving a big hit from Strahan.
However, those of us who saw the play and have good eyesight know that Favre had no intention of throwing the ball.

 

I totally disagree on this. Klecko and Lyons and Salaam did the hard work on that line. Gastineau was a great one-dimensional speed rusher and his game was totally predicated on getting the jump on the snap. That made him the sucker on a million draws during his career (figuratively speaking.)

Teams gamed around how to beat Klecko not Gastineau.

 

I'd say Bill Bellichick is a bigger disgrace to the Jets than MG was......