ON PRO FOOTBALL; Cheap Sack Will Cost Favre and Strahan
By Mike Freeman
Published: January 07, 2002
When Giants defensive end Michael Strahan broke the N.F.L. sack record yesterday, there was not a player who deserved it more. That is what Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre, the man Strahan sacked to bring his total to 22 1/2, said after the Packers' 34-25 victory.
And Favre, a close friend of Strahan's, is right. Strahan is one of the hardest-working, classiest people the sport has seen in some time. But the next time Strahan sees Favre at a golf tournament, or they're having a beer, Strahan should slap his good friend silly.
Yes, Mr. Favre, Strahan deserves the record, but please, handing it to him the way you did, as if you were throwing change into a Salvation Army bucket, is the kind of mistake Favre may never live down.
It is not the Chicago Black Sox, or Nancy-Tonya, but it is u-g-l-y.
What the heck was Favre thinking?
Strahan broke the record set by Mark Gastineau, the former Jet, because of a gift from Favre with less than three minutes remaining in the game. Green Bay Coach Mike Sherman, with his team comfortably ahead, called for a running play to Ahman Green. Favre changed it, without telling his offensive line, to something called a key play, meaning Favre is to fake a handoff to a back and then run the opposite way, in this instance, toward Strahan's left defensive end spot.
Since the linemen thought Favre was handing off, they did not pass protect, and Strahan was free. He steamrolled right into Favre for a 7-yard sack. It went just as Favre had planned it.
Until that point, Strahan had no sacks, three quarterback hurries and two quarterback hits. He was not going to get the record.
There is no question that Favre knew this, so he changed the play so Strahan could get the sack. ''Strahan can get sacks on his own,'' Sherman said, stressing that the original call was for a handoff. ''We don't have to give it to him.''
Sherman was clearly irritated. Favre had committed a basic sin in football: nothing is free. When Lawrence Taylor was in the same position in 1986 -- facing Green Bay, just a sack and a half behind Gastineau -- did the Packers' quarterback then do a little fixer-upper so Taylor could get it? No. Taylor was shut out.
When asked about the sack, Packers center Mike Flanagan, also irritated about Strahan's gift, said: ''That's not something I'm talking about. Go ask Brett.'' Other offensive linemen were equally bothered.
Favre denied he gave his friend the sack, but he could barely do it with a straight face.
''We wanted to win the football game,'' Favre said. ''If a sack happens, great. But when we leave today, we wanted to leave here as a winner.''
Favre is missing the moon-sized point. By tanking it, he hurt his friend Strahan more than he helped him, because now, that is what the talk is about, not what Strahan did. It cheapens the record -- not a lot, but enough.
It would have been better for Strahan not to get the record than to get it the way he did.
Sport is a place for answers. You may not like them, but they are usually concrete. And records are part of that. They are supposed to be blemish free, honest and clear, everything that life is not. We may not know if our plane will land at its destination or if the economy will sour like a rotten apple, but we do know what we see on the field is real.
Strahan is happy to hold the sack record, and that is understandable. It has stood for 17 years, and he has worked extremely hard to get to this point. If he continues on this path, he will sack his way into the Hall of Fame.
And Strahan plays the most brutal position in a brutal game, where players are routinely kicked in the groin, gouged in the face, punched in the stomach, spat on and bitten. Things have been done to Strahan that dogs don't do to each other.
Some will maintain, who cares if Favre gave him the record? Just by virtue of playing nine rough years in the league, for him to get that close, he deserves it anyway.
And this is not to blame Strahan. He simply took advantage of what Favre did. Strahan said that if Favre did throw him the high, slow curveball: ''I was not in the huddle calling the plays. I can just react to what happened.''
Favre hugged Strahan after the sack, and even some Packers players -- not on offense, mind you -- applauded Strahan. There isn't a player in football who dislikes the defensive star. He's that good a guy.
But Favre, in the end, didn't do Strahan, or himself, any favors.
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