When Myles Garrett gets his next sack, you won’t need to go searching for the news-it’ll find you. A push notification, a highlight reel, a live cut-in during another game-whatever it takes, the NFL world will make sure you know.
And for good reason. Garrett is sitting at 21.5 sacks, just one away from tying the NFL’s single-season record of 22.5, held by Michael Strahan and T.J.
Watt. That’s not just rare air-it’s sacred ground for defensive players.
If (or when) Garrett ties or breaks that record, he’ll become just the third player in the last 41 seasons to reach that number. And in today’s media-saturated, stat-obsessed football culture, the moment will be everywhere.
But rewind the clock exactly 41 years to the day-December 16, 1984-and you’ll find a very different story. One that barely made a ripple at the time, even though it should’ve caused a tidal wave.
That was the day Jets pass rusher Mark Gastineau hit 22 sacks on the season, setting a new NFL record. But instead of headlines and highlight packages, his achievement was buried under the chaos of a game that became infamous for all the wrong reasons.
The Jets were in Tampa Bay to close out a forgettable season. They lost 41-21, but the real story wasn’t the score-it was the Bucs’ relentless push to get running back James Wilder the single-season record for total yards from scrimmage. And they weren’t subtle about it.
Despite leading by as many as 27 points, Tampa Bay kept trying onside kicks and even let Jets running back Johnny Hector score late in the game-just to get the ball back and feed Wilder more touches. It was gamesmanship that crossed into farce. Wilder ended the day with 103 rushing yards and 60 receiving, finishing the season at 2,229 total yards-just 15 shy of the record Eric Dickerson had set two days earlier with 2,244.
The Jets knew exactly what was happening. So when the Bucs got the ball back in the final minute, the defense sold out to stop Wilder.
Eleven defenders locked in on one man. Wilder got three straight carries.
He gained two yards, lost two, and then-on the final play of the game-was stuffed for no gain by none other than Mark Gastineau.
It was a fitting exclamation point for a player who had just set the single-season sack record with two earlier takedowns. But you’d never know it from the coverage.
Newsday gave it a passing mention, tucked away at the bottom of the game story. The New York Times didn’t mention it at all.
Even the Jets themselves were so incensed by Tampa Bay’s antics that Gastineau’s record went largely unnoticed.
Jets head coach Joe Walton called the Bucs’ tactics “uncalled for” and “a total embarrassment.” Assistant coaches and players confronted Tampa Bay’s John McKay during and after the game. The focus was on the circus-not the history that had just been made.
Part of the issue was timing. Sacks had only been an official NFL stat since 1982.
The record Gastineau broke? His own-he’d led the league with 19 the year before.
And while unofficial sack numbers existed-Al Baker had 23 in 1978, and Deacon Jones had 22 way back in 1964-they weren’t recognized by the league.
Sacks also didn’t carry the same weight back then. Even with 22 of them, Gastineau finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Kenny Easley (10 INTs) and Lawrence Taylor (11.5 sacks).
And because the sack record had been broken in each of the previous two seasons, there was a sense that it was just going to keep falling. That is, until it didn’t.
After Gastineau’s 22 in 1984, no one topped 20 sacks for years. Taylor came close with 20.5 in 1986.
Reggie White had 21 in 1987. Derrick Thomas notched 20 in 1990.
But then came a drought. For more than a decade, no one even sniffed the record.
So when Michael Strahan finally hit 22.5 in 2001-sacking Brett Favre in a play that’s still debated for its legitimacy-it felt like the record had finally arrived as a true milestone. Gastineau was there for the moment, but his own record-setting day had long since faded into obscurity.
T.J. Watt’s 2021 season, which tied Strahan’s mark, was met with all the fanfare Gastineau never received.
Now it’s Garrett’s turn. He’s got three games left to make history, and whether he does it in 16 games like Strahan or 17 like Watt, the football world will be watching. But before he catches Strahan and Watt, Garrett has to pass Gastineau-a name that’s finally getting the respect it deserves.
That 22-sack season, once overlooked, has aged like fine wine. What felt like a footnote in 1984 has become a foundational moment in the evolution of defensive football. On a day when the Bucs were accused of setting the game back 20 years, Gastineau was quietly pushing it forward by twice that.
So when Garrett gets that next sack-and you hear about it instantly-take a moment to remember the one that almost no one noticed. Because long before the sack became a marquee stat, Mark Gastineau was setting the bar.