Gastineau

[peekskill68]

Say what you want about Cimini as a beat reporter, but the dude can write...

Sad story here.  I'm glad I got to see him play.  He was Nick Bosa 40 years ago.

The part about how the draft worked pre-ESPN and Connie Carberg is pure gold.

I will still never forgive Favre for that lay down he did for Strahan...

--------------------------------------------------------

Mark Gastineau's 40-year odyssey: Sleeper, sack dancer, cancer patient

Rich Cimini ESPN Staff Writer

On April 8, Mark Gastineau emerged from his eighth and final chemotherapy session and walked through the first-floor waiting room at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Wiping tears from his eyes, he stopped at an antique ship bell mounted on the wall beneath a flat-screen TV. Eschewing the nearby box of tissues, he reached for the bell. Old No. 99, wearing an NFL alumni shirt underneath an unbuttoned, blue-denim long-sleeved shirt, turned this into a vintage Gastineau moment.

The former New York Jets star rang the bell as part of Fox Chase's traditional, end-of-chemo ceremony. Five nurses, a couple of receptionists and a handful of patients came out to watch Gastineau, once a flamboyant sack dancer, perform before the assembling crowd.

Former Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau celebrates the end of his chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer with his wife, Jo Ann, on April 8. Courtesy of Mark Gastineau

Battling the sinister effects of chemo, Gastineau kept ringing the bell, louder and louder, shimmying his 6-foot-5 frame as if he had just recorded his 75th quarterback sack after a three-decade hiatus. He rang it with such gusto that screws loosened from the wall. There were hugs and more tears, leaving wet spots on his shirt. He posed for pictures with his wife, Jo Ann. Together, they held a big sign that said, "I SURVIVED CHEMO!"

"Oh, man, it was so good. It was so good," Gastineau said two weeks later. "Even though I was so sick, it was still so joyous."

"I tell you what, he rang that bell better than a sack dance," Jo Ann said, laughing. "[We're] sacking cancer all the way. The Lord has been protecting us and taking care of us."

Gastineau, one the NFL's most feared pass-rushers in the 1980s, was diagnosed last October with stage 3 colon cancer. A year earlier, doctors told him that a brain scan had revealed the onset of dementia. Once upon a time, he was a larger-than-life celebrity athlete who drove a Rolls-Royce, wore a mink coat and partied at the trendiest clubs in Manhattan. Now 62, his mind and body are betraying him. His medical bills are so high that he's on the verge of losing his home in Yardville, New Jersey, where he has lived since 2003.

Life has turned on Gastineau, but he tries to remain upbeat. "Alive is me," he tells people. He has been in the spotlight for 40 years, not all of it pleasant, but he appreciates the journey more than ever. It all started with an out-of-the-blue phone call from a woman in Long Island, New York.

---

On May 3, 1979, the Jets drafted Gastineau in the second round, 41st overall. This was the year before ESPN televised its first draft, before Mel Kiper Jr. was a household name and before every top prospect attended the draft with his entourage. In Gastineau's day, there was no fanfare. The player waited in his home, hoping the phone would ring with life-changing news. It was an era when it was possible to discover a true draft sleeper.

That described Gastineau, a no-name defensive end out of East Central Oklahoma. He became one of the best draft picks in team history, a five-time Pro Bowler, a three-time All-Pro and a member of the Jets' Ring of Honor. Aside from Joe Namath, he might be the franchise's most popular player, still a fan magnet after all these years. Owner Woody Johnson once told Gastineau's wife that Mark and the New York Sack Exchange -- the four-man front that terrorized quarterbacks in the early 1980s -- were critical to the growth of the franchise.

If it weren't for Connie Nicholas Carberg, a scouting assistant, Gastineau never would've made it to Gotham.

"The biggest thrill, I think, was getting that phone call from Connie," Gastineau said. "That was definitely the biggest thrill of my life. I can remember her voice right now."

The Jets' staff, assigned to coach the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, asked Nicholas Carberg to find a last-minute replacement player for an Iowa State defensive lineman named Mike Stensrud, who was injured in a snowmobile accident. Nicholas Carberg, known around the Jets' offices as "The Girl Scout," pulled film and scouting reports of a few candidates. One of them stood out because of his speed. She decided to call them individually to conduct quasi job interviews.

Most sacks in single season

She was blown away by Gastineau's passion on the phone, so she extended the 11th-hour invite to him. He was at his brother-in-law's restaurant Sapphire in Arizona's White Mountains when he got the call.

"He said, 'I'm ready, just get me on the next plane. This is a dream come true, just get me there. I'm ready to play football,'" she recalled. "You could hear the enthusiasm. I looked, and it turned out to be the one with the speed. It turned out to be Mark."

For Gastineau, who grew up in dusty towns in Arizona and Oklahoma, it was a game-changer. When he arrived in Mobile, he saw a marquee in town with his name in flashing lights.

Welcome, Mark Gastineau.

"Just for a second," he said, "it was the most exciting thing in the world."

Once he got on the field, Gastineau impressed the scouts and was named the top lineman on the North Squad. He was clocked under 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash, a ridiculous time for a 260-pound man. If there had been social media, he would have blown up Twitter. The Jets were concerned because their little secret from East Central Oklahoma was starting to become known in the scouting community, and they nearly lost him to the Buffalo Bills.

With the fourth pick in the second round, 32 overall, the Bills called Gastineau to let him know their plans to select him -- except they didn't. They made a mistake and called him back, apologizing for their error. They wound up picking nose tackle Fred Smerlas, who enjoyed a long NFL career. Nine picks later, the Jets called with the news -- and theirs wasn't fake. It was Nicholas Carberg, naturally thrilled with the choice, who phoned in the pick to draft headquarters in New York. She and Gastineau would become lifelong friends.

Gastineau, at his parents' 220-acre ranch in Ravia, Oklahoma (current population: 525), was so excited that he pounded his fist into a 100-year-old oak table -- and split the wood. What a journey. As a kid, he broke a leg so severely in a backyard accident that doctors weren't sure whether he would walk again. When he transferred from Arizona State, his coach -- the maniacal Frank Kush -- told him he would never make it in the NFL. Now he was headed to the league and to New York City.

"They said the roof of my mouth got sunburn from gawking at the skyscrapers," he said, laughing.

Gastineau became the quintessential speed rusher, peaking in 1984 with a then-record 22 sacks in a season. He was one of the most polarizing players in the league because his celebratory sack dances, which were eventually outlawed, infuriated opponents. One time it sparked a vicious fight with future Pro Football Hall of Famer Jackie Slater. At the time, Gastineau seemed unfazed by the criticism. After all, he was one of the biggest names in the sport. He was a Sports Illustrated cover boy. He was a paparazzi favorite. He was a rock star who performed every Sunday.

Truth is, it did hurt.

"I got a lot of s-s-s-s-sacks -- and I got a lot of punishment for it," he said, his voice rising and falling in the same sentence. "That's OK. I'm not going to say I paved the road, but you know what? I had a lot of fun doing it. I can't say I felt bad about getting sacks. It could've been a lot better if I didn't have all the negative publicity, but you know what? Looking back on it, my career, I had a lot of ups and downs. There's been a lot of negative publicity on me. The things that are negative, I try to block out.

"We can't focus on the negative. The past has no future."

He would be making $20 million a year if he were playing today. Some might say he redefined his position.

"I don't think a lot of people think that," he said.

He was the sack king before sacks became an official statistic in 1982. He held the single-season record until Michael Strahan broke it in 2001 with 22.5.

"If people know about it, they'll come up to me every once in a while and say you were a really great player, and I appreciate that," Gastineau said. "But I'm not going around making quotes about how good I was. I'm just going around being Mark Gastineau and trying to get through this cancer I'm going through."

When Gastineau went for a colonoscopy last October, his doctors knew immediately that something was wrong. They detected a malignancy so clearly that they told Mark and Jo Ann on the spot before the biopsy results. The tumor was removed at Fox Chase, where he spent three weeks recovering from surgery.

A game plan was set: Eight chemotherapy sessions, followed by 5½ weeks of radiation, five times a week. He's in the middle of the radiation phase, optimistic he will beat the cancer, but knows it's only "halftime" in this battle.

"There's no way to describe it," Gastineau said of the disease. "It's tough to describe, but you know what? There's going to be a day when it's over. There are people there that are worse than I am."

Gastineau, who once relished the spotlight, doesn't do a lot of interviews. He agreed to speak to ESPN in part because he wants to raise awareness for colon cancer.

"I think the reason I have this is to tell people to get tested," he said, making this reporter promise he would have a colonoscopy. "[The cancer] came on like a thief in the night."

He relies on his faith more than ever. He belongs to the Times Square Church, an hour's drive from his New Jersey home, and considers pastor Carter Conlon his life preserver. In the middle of his interview with ESPN, Gastineau started praying aloud, asking the Lord to allow this story to touch many people. Friends say this is a different Gastineau than the "look-at-me" football star who chafed teammates and once invited reporters into his training-camp dorm room to watch him lift weights.

"Mark realizes -- like all of us -- that we're closer to the end than the beginning," said former teammate Marty Lyons, who teamed with Gastineau, Joe Klecko and Abdul Salaam to comprise the celebrated Sack Exchange. "He's been humbled and he's thankful. Maybe he didn't say 'thank you' to enough people along the way, but it's not too late. He has a long battle in front of him, but the one thing he has now that he didn't have before is his faith."

When Lyons heard about the cancer, he called Gastineau to offer support. His former teammate is hurting physically and financially, so Lyons organized a fundraiser. Old bonds don't break no matter how much they have been tested.

In the 1980s, Mark was one of the highest-paid defensive players in the NFL, averaging close to $800,000 per year. In 1991, three years after he retired abruptly in the middle of the season, he lost all his assets in a stormy divorce with his first wife, the Associated Press reported at the time. Medical costs have mounted in recent years, prompting the Gastineaus to create a GoFundMe page at the behest of their pastor. In 2017, Gastineau announced he had been diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. A year later, he did a radio interview in which he delivered a plea to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, asking the league to help ailing players.

"It's been tough," Jo Ann said. "This is a really, really tough time."

Despite the adversity, Gastineau maintains an endearing, boyish charm. In some ways, he's still the same No. 99 who danced over his prey on the football field. After chemo treatments, he walked around the facility, visiting other patients and giving pep talks. He turned the cancer ward into a football sideline, trying to fire up his new teammates. He chanted:

Fox Chase is No. 1! Fox Chase is the best! Let's go, let's go!

"They looked at me like I was crazy," he said. "But, all of a sudden, they said, 'Yeah! Yeah!'"

Gastineau, once famous for knocking people down, now picks them up. And he could use a little of that himself.

 

 

[joewilly12]

WOW God Bless Mark Gastineau I wish him the best. 

[CTM]

eff cancer

[Scott Dierking]

Hate to see the plight that Gastineau is going through, but throughout his life he was a $****y  teammate.

-Often ignored his responsibilities to take the glorious route

-Crossed the picket line

-Quit on his team in the middle of a season for a personal manner

 

[section314]

Wow. Didn't know any of that. Godspeed to Mark and his family.?

[peekskill68]

14 minutes ago, Scott Dierking said:

Hate to see the plight that Gastineau is going through, but throughout his life he was a $****y  teammate.

-Often ignored his responsibilities to take the glorious route

-Crossed the picket line

-Quit on his team in the middle of a season for a personal manner

 

Good post.  The memory gets dull after so many years.  Definitely had issues...

[JoJoTownsell1]

Gastineau was my favorite player growing up. He used to live a few miles from my home (in a pretty boring town in Long Island) and kids would come to school with stories of bumping into him at a random store. I always got the sense that he was a bit of a troubled soul. Feel horrible that his health is now failing him. 

[Scott Dierking]

4 minutes ago, peekskill68 said:

Good post.  The memory gets dull after so many years.  Definitely had issues...

LAWMEN SAY VIOLENT GASTINEAU’S AN ‘O.J. WAITING TO HAPPEN’

By Laura Italiano

May 14, 2000 | 4:00am

 

As a New York Jets superstar, Mark Gastineau pummeled quarterbacks by day and first wife Lisa by night.

In the past two years, he’s switched exclusively to women.

Gastineau’s attacks in Manhattan and Queens have left his second wife, Patricia, and two of his girlfriends bruised and terrified, according to court documents and witness accounts.

“He’s the next O.J. waiting to happen,” one law-enforcement source said recently of the hulking, former defensive end.

But each time he’s arrested and charged, Gastineau has routinely done one of his gleeful “sack dances” over the city’s criminal-justice system – and the system has done little more than wink back.

In fact, Gastineau, 42, is AWOL from Rikers Island today – sentenced to do weekend service for violating probation – but no one is looking for him.

“Mark is a sick man,” said Patricia, who left him last summer after he beat and choked her. Since then, he has repeatedly violated court orders of protection.

“But he’s a big charmer,” she added.

Back in the mid-’80s, Mark Gastineau entertained Jets fans with his unparalleled skill and flamboyance. His 1984 record of 22 quarterback sacks in a single season still stands.

At his career pinnacle, he drove to practice on Long Island in a Rolls Royce Corniche convertible. He left first wife Lisa and his infant daughter home while he squired his girlfriend, actress Brigitte Nielsen, to games.

He wore a full-length ranch mink and a gold earring in the shape of a lightning bolt clutched in a fist. He popped steroids, posed for Playgirl, hawked electric razors and underwear on TV, and got into brawls at Studio 54.

But if his career were reduced to a single image, it would be of the leonine-maned athlete, No. 99, doing his famous “sack dance” over the battered body of a fallen quarterback – spinning and leaping with his fists pumping the air in triumph.

Now, with no job, a broken marriage, and an admitted addiction to prescription painkillers and diet pills, Gastineau himself has told judges in the past weeks, “I really reached rock bottom.”

Still, it’s been a cushy landing – and almost consequence-free.

Since 1998, Gastineau has repeatedly violated plea agreements by getting re-arrested. He has ignored orders of protection. He has skipped bail. He has failed to report to court, or to his probation officer, or to his domestic-violence counselor.

Yet time and again, as he stood in courtrooms in both boroughs, he has avoided serving all but a few scattered days in jail.

This has happened because all three victims stopped cooperating with Queens and Manhattan prosecutors, because the prosecutors then gave up – accepting plea deals or dismissing the charges entirely – and because a succession of judges failed to throw him in jail even when required to under prior plea deals.

“I look at the system and I’m just flabbergasted,” said Lisa.

“When is someone going to stop him – when he murders someone?” said a woman who witnessed one of Gastineau’s attacks, and who calls the former all-pro “a sadistic bastard.”

In January, he was sentenced to serve 16 three-day weekends in jail after violating probation by failing to meet with his probation officer and skipping court-ordered domestic-violence classes.

Of the 16 weekends, “he only made the first three – and hasn’t turned up since,” said a city Correction Department spokesman.

Gastineau “underestimated the emotional difficulties of that process of every Friday showing up at Rikers Island,” defense lawyer Richard Davis explained to a sympathetic Judge Kirke Bartley in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Instead of jail – in an unusual arrangement approved by Bartley in Manhattan on April 28 and by Queens Hearing Officer Maurice Brill last Wednesday – Gastineau has spent the last three weeks in what his lawyer described in court as “a residential program of Christian discipleship” in The Bronx.

He has promised to spend a year at the Hope Christian Center on University Avenue, where he rises at 6:30 each morning for chores and Bible study, then spends the afternoon finishing furniture.

The program is voluntary. Its doors are unlocked. It isn’t a court-sanctioned domestic-violence program, according to a spokeswoman for the state court system.

And at least one prosecutor went ballistic on learning Gastineau could stay there instead of going to jail.

“The defendant’s major problem in life is domestic violence, violence against Lisa Gastineau, Brigitte Nielsen, Patty Gastineau and two other women in Queens,” Manhattan prosecutor Angela Albertus told Bartley on April 28.

“I don’t see how Bible classes and furniture finishing will address the problems of prescription drug addiction and domestic violence.”

Domestic-violence experts are also livid at the arrangement. “It sounds like O.J. being allowed to have counseling over the phone,” said Boston lawyer Nancy Van Tine, an expert on domestic violence committed by athletes.

“He should have been thrown in jail – then afterward he can find God and finish furniture,” said Kristian Miccio, who teaches about domestic violence at Western State University of Law in Fullerton, Calif.

But Gastineau, his pastors, his family, and even Patricia say they are hopeful.

“He’s doing quite well; he’s getting off the pills, and we’re all pulling for him,” Patricia said last week.

“I’m getting back my life and putting my life in order,” Gastineau said last week as he left Queens Criminal Court to return to the Hope Center.

It sounds eerily like Gastineau’s words as he left Manhattan Criminal Court in January 1999, after again being spared a jail sentence for admittedly beating Patricia.

“I’m happy that I’m taking care of my responsibilities,” Gastineau told reporters on the courthouse steps.

[Fantasy Island]

I hope he beats cancer, great player.

[JoJoTownsell1]

20 minutes ago, Scott Dierking said:

Hate to see the plight that Gastineau is going through, but throughout his life he was a $****y  teammate.

-Often ignored his responsibilities to take the glorious route

 

 

 

Yeah, 1 of thousands of players to do that. He also took some bad penalties and drew attention to himself. In other words, he was your prototypical 2019 NFL player. We could use another Gastineau. 

20 minutes ago, Scott Dierking said:

 

-Crossed the picket line

 

 

Yeah, and so did Marty Lyons, Klecko, Mike Webster and a hundred other players. But for some reason many here only remember Gastineau. 

 

 

[dbatesman]

3 minutes ago, JoJoTownsell1 said:

Yeah, and so did Marty Lyons, Klecko, Mike Webster and a hundred other players. 

Those guys are all pieces of sh*t too.

[Scott Dierking]

1 minute ago, JoJoTownsell1 said:

Yeah, 1 of thousands of players to do that. He also took some bad penalties and drew attention to himself. In other words, he was your prototypical 2019 NFL player. We could use another Gastineau. 

Yeah, and so did Marty Lyons, Klecko, Mike Webster and a hundred other players. But for some reason many here only remember Gastineau. 

 

 

Admittedly, I have done a hatchet job on Gastineau as a player here. But, also his personal life was a wreck and he beat on women. And was a crappy dad and person in general/

It still sucks as I am sure part of what he has become is because of the sport he played and the toll it takes on your body and more  so, your brain. The steroids he crushed did not help him either.

For anyone that has not watched the 30 for 30 story on Junior Seau, I highly recommend it. It is an education of what this sport can do to you. So much so, I don't see how this wlsl be a sport in 20 years. I would forbid any of my kids from playing the game. That is just me based on the information that is now known.

 

[joenamathwouldn'tcry]

Want to cry.  Knew about the dementia.  It was pretty obvious at last year's open practices.  That was sad to see.  This is devastating.  Life's not fair, sometimes. Actually a lot.  He's a courageous man.  We knew that already.    G-d Bless Mark Gastineau.

[#27TheDominator]

21 minutes ago, Scott Dierking said:

Hate to see the plight that Gastineau is going through, but throughout his life he was a $****y  teammate.

-Often ignored his responsibilities to take the glorious route

-Crossed the picket line

-Quit on his team in the middle of a season for a personal manner

 

I get that Gastineau was a grandstanding me-first type, but I don't look at him as a bad guy for putting his wife before football.  The fact that it was Red Sonja and they were some kind of cocaine fueled wannabe super couple when he was still married and she was 15 minutes out of her marriage with Rocky provided poor optics, but I would quit my job and/or football for my wife.  Family first. If it weren't for the other items, retiring because his fiance had uterine cancer would be looked at as noble. They have a kid together. 

It did hurt. He averaged a sack a game under Bud Carson that year and things were looking up after the previous years strike induced disappointment.  On the other hand, he had been shut out in his last 2 games, both losses, and the team was at 3-3-1 when he left.  They won the next two, but didn't go anywhere. We ended up with the consolation prize of Al Toon keeping the Giants out of the playoffs. @nyjunc probably has a very specific memory of the team and will argue with me and others about minor points, but that is my recollection.

[#27TheDominator]

Possibly the greatest pass rusher that ever lived.  Horrible boxer. 

[Scott Dierking]

5 minutes ago, #27TheDominator said:

I get that Gastineau was a grandstanding me-first type, but I don't look at him as a bad guy for putting his wife before football.  The fact that it was Red Sonja and they were some kind of cocaine fueled wannabe super couple when he was still married and she was 15 minutes out of her marriage with Rocky provided poor optics, but I would quit my job and/or football for my wife.  Family first. If it weren't for the other items, retiring because his fiance had uterine cancer would be looked at as noble. They have a kid together. 

It did hurt. He averaged a sack a game under Bud Carson that year and things were looking up after the previous years strike induced disappointment.  On the other hand, he had been shut out in his last 2 games, both losses, and the team was at 3-3-1 when he left.  They won the next two, but didn't go anywhere. We ended up with the consolation prize of Al Toon keeping the Giants out of the playoffs. @nyjunc probably has a very specific memory of the team and will argue with me and others about minor points, but that is my recollection.

I believe that Brigitte was his girlfriend, and he was still married to Brittany at the time. My memory may be fuzzy though.

[rangerous]

1 hour ago, joewilly12 said:

WOW God Bless Mark Gastineau I wish him the best. 

yep and god bless anyone who has to go through stuff like that.  it's easy to point out his faults but at the end of the day nobody deserves this kind of illness.

[joewilly12]

55 minutes ago, Scott Dierking said:

Hate to see the plight that Gastineau is going through, but throughout his life he was a $****y  teammate.

-Often ignored his responsibilities to take the glorious route

-Crossed the picket line

-Quit on his team in the middle of a season for a personal manner

 

Wrong place wrong time this thread is about his battle with cancer. 

[dbatesman]

8 minutes ago, joewilly12 said:

Wrong place wrong time this thread is about his battle with cancer. 

Wrong place wrong time this thread is about Ray Rice's dominant performance in the 2008 International Bowl.

[#27TheDominator]

21 minutes ago, Scott Dierking said:

I believe that Brigitte was his girlfriend, and he was still married to Brittany at the time. My memory may be fuzzy though.

Guess you didn't read my post.  He was still married, but Lisa was his wife.  Brittny is the daughter.  The a is silent/invisible, maybe they couldn't afford it, like Sheldn couldn't afford the o.  Like me, you also must have missed the reality program.  Red Sonja was his girlfriend/fiance.  They did end up having a child, though the relationship didn't last and decades later he was replaced by Flava Flav.  Yeah boy.

[Scott Dierking]

15 minutes ago, joewilly12 said:

Wrong place wrong time this thread is about his battle with cancer. 

Feel free to delete my comments.

[Scott Dierking]

Just now, #27TheDominator said:

Guess you didn't read my post.  He was still married, but Lisa was his wife.  Brittny is the daughter.  The a is silent/invisible, maybe they couldn't afford it, like Sheldn couldn't afford the o.  Like me, you also must have missed the reality program.  Red Sonja was his girlfriend/fiance.  They did end up having a child, though the relationship didn't last and decades later he was replaced by Flava Flav.  Yeah boy.

I read it, just don't have great comprehension. Forgot that Brittny was the daughter. Thanks for the Gastineau family enlightenment. ?

[BurnleyJet]

A Fund raiser for he guy? 

[#27TheDominator]

3 minutes ago, Scott Dierking said:

Feel free to delete my comments.

I will be very concerned if JoeWilly has that ability.

[Joe W. Namath]

One of the best Jets of all time!  I wish him well in his recovery.

[joewilly12]

2 hours ago, Scott Dierking said:

Feel free to delete my comments.

No can do, let everyone see them so they can see the person you are. 

Mocking a guy who is battling cancer. 

[joewilly12]

2 hours ago, dbatesman said:

Wrong place wrong time this thread is about Ray Rice's dominant performance in the 2008 International Bowl.

TROLL comment of the week if there was one. 

[Wonderboy]

Best sack artist Jets ever had. Could have been HOF.: Stratham would never have broken his record if Farve didn’t hand it to him and Strahan, like the jerk he is, acted like he broke the record which he DIDN'T. That last sack should never have counted! In my eyes Gas holds the all time sack record in a  year.

 

[Warfish]

No matter how bad a person he may have been, no one deserves Cancer.

I don't like him, but I wish him the very best in terms of his treatment and recovery.

[Scott Dierking]

11 minutes ago, Warfish said:

No matter how bad a person he may have been, no one deserves Cancer.

I don't like him, but I wish him the very best in terms of his treatment and recovery.

You are correct there.

Bad things happen to both good and bad people.

[Scott Dierking]

52 minutes ago, joewilly12 said:

No can do, let everyone see them so they can see the person you are. 

Mocking a guy who is battling cancer. 

All I did was tell the truth of his life outside of the football game. Not pretty.  These are the things that follow you in life, if you choose to do them. Nothing removes those stains. He had choices in how he chose to conduct his life.

He did not have choices in his health (unless steroids played a part). That said, I wish him good health in his current battles.

[jgb]

Another all time great hated by a very vocal and annoying minority of Jets fans

Mommas don’t let your sons grow up to be Jets players 

#PeytonWasOntoSomething

[#27TheDominator]

1 hour ago, Wonderboy said:

Best sack artist Jets ever had. Could have been HOF.: Stratham would never have broken his record if Farve didn’t hand it to him and Strahan, like the jerk he is, acted like he broke the record which he DIDN'T. That last sack should never have counted! In my eyes Gas holds the all time sack record in a  year.

 

Pro Keds!

[Kleckineau]

Hey Mark if you lurk here disregard the cold blooded schmucks. They are a tiny, intellectually challenged minority who think they have led their lives perfectly.

Sack cancer and thanks for the memories.

[Maxman]

5 hours ago, Scott Dierking said:

Admittedly, I have done a hatchet job on Gastineau as a player here. But, also his personal life was a wreck and he beat on women. And was a crappy dad and person in general/

It still sucks as I am sure part of what he has become is because of the sport he played and the toll it takes on your body and more  so, your brain. The steroids he crushed did not help him either.

For anyone that has not watched the 30 for 30 story on Junior Seau, I highly recommend it. It is an education of what this sport can do to you. So much so, I don't see how this wlsl be a sport in 20 years. I would forbid any of my kids from playing the game. That is just me based on the information that is now known.

 

Kids are playing tackle football too young. My son started playing his sophomore year in high school and was able to play college football. It is a sport that has its risks. Hopefully the helmet changes and other advances will make it safer. But having 8 year olds tackling each other needs to be a thing of the past.