There isn't an asterisk next to Michael Strahan's all-time, single-season sack total of 22.5, but let's face it, there should be.
Strahan entered Week 17 of the 2001 season needing only one sack against the Packers to eclipse the mark set by former Jets QB menace/incorrigible head case Mark Gastineau. Strahan got the record ... with considerable help from Brett Favre, who audibled out of a run play, rolled to his right and awkwardly slid right into Strahan's feet.
It generally was agreed by most to be weak sauce. Strahan has said the ensuing controversy adversely affected his enjoyment of the record, but he doesn't have any regrets. This is an opinion Vikings star Jared Allen can get behind.
Allen, of course, came within half a sack of breaking Strahan's record this season. He had 3.5 sacks in Week 17 against the Bears and would have been OK with Josh McCown doing him a solid.
"Absolutely. A sack is a sack is a sack," Allen said Tuesday on WHB-AM in Kansas City (via SportsRadioInterview.com). "There was about three times when I hit him when he just got rid of the ball. I tell you what, all he had to do was hook slide for me on one of them."
Let's hope Allen -- or anyone, really -- breaks Strahan's mark without any strings attached. The sack record needs its dignity back.
