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“I never could convince anyone … that I was anything more than a crazy Jets fan stuck in the 1980s wanting to do this film.”
Some men dream of walking on the moon, building a Fortune 500 company, or starring in a Hollywood blockbuster.
James Weiner had a more esoteric aspiration: He wanted to direct a film about the famed defensive line of the 1980s New York Jets — “The New York Sack Exchange.”
Weiner is an award-winning senior producer for NFL Films with “The Brady 6” and “SEC Storied: Saturday Night Lights” among his credits, but growing up in the 1980s in Port Washington, New York, a 20-minute drive from Shea Stadium, his lifelong professional passion was to direct a film about the formidable defensive line of the 1980s Jets that featured Marty Lyons, Abdul Salaam, Joe Klecko and Mark Gastineau.
“I’ve been trying to do this film for at least 20 years,” Weiner said. “But I never could convince anyone.”
The dream was deferred but not unrealized. Weiner and co-director Ken Rodgers (who has been profiled on this site before and is the director of many terrific NFL documentaries, including “Belichick & Saban: The Art of Coaching,” “The Two Bills” and “Four Falls of Buffalo”) have produced a breezy and captivating look at one of the most talked-about defensive units in the history of the NFL.
“The New York Sack Exchange” premieres on Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN and will be available to stream on ESPN+ following its linear premiere. The film is narrated by musician, actor and lifelong Jets fan Method Man.
Weiner said he met with Gastineau and his family in 2013 to take the temperature of doing a film treatment on the Sack Exchange, but the meeting went nowhere. The project looked dead until the fall of 2022, when Weiner took a bike ride to Rodgers’ home, and the two discussed projects that they always wanted to do. Rodgers, in an encouraging mode, told Weiner that no good idea never dies.
Then came a news catalyst: Klecko entering the Hall of Fame in 2023. Finally, a big break. Last year, Rodgers was giving Marsha Cooke, the vice president and executive producer of ESPN Films and 30 for 30, a tour of NFL Films, and the two got to talking about Joe Namath. Cooke, who started in her current role in 2021, said she was a born-and-bred Jets fan from the Bronx. Rodgers pitched her during the tour about a documentary on the New York Sack Exchange, and Cooke loved it. The filmmakers later made a more formal pitch, and eventually, ESPN Films was in.
“Joe Klecko getting into the Hall of Fame changed things,” Rodgers said. “Our first shoot with the collective group was at the Hall of Fame. We followed Joe behind the scenes and had all of them wired during his speech and backstage. I’m not sure any of the four of them would have necessarily wanted a film made about just them. They wanted a film about the Sack Exchange. I think Mark understood once Joe got into the Hall of Fame that that was somewhat of a validation for his own career, though as you see in the film he wonders if he’ll ever get in.”
Once they got the go-ahead from ESPN Films, they needed to interview Salaam because of his declining health — he died in early October at age 71. The filmmakers knew they had to shoot the quartet at the New York Stock Exchange, replicating the famous photo of the foursome (seen atop this story) when they posed in uniform on the floor of the financial hub. So, as part of the making of the film, they hired a private car to drive Salaam 10 hours from his home in Cincinnati to New York City in April 2024.
Gastineau is the central figure of the documentary and remains an exhausting figure, though compelling too. The filmmakers, to their credit, do not sugarcoat Gastineau’s career, his decisions and how infuriating his behavior was for his teammates. You will rarely see someone on film more unsparing about a teammate as Lyons is about Gastineau. They also highlight where Gastineau was ahead of his time (his sack dance today is quaint compared to some celebrations).
The New York Jets’ Mark Gastineau (99) was known for his flamboyance after making defensive plays. (T.G. Higgins / Getty Images)
“There’s empathy there for Mark’s arguments, if not for him,” Weiner said. “His arguments have some real merit and allowed us to present them as he argued them.”
(The Athletic’s Dan Pompei wrote a terrific profile of Gastineau last June that is worth reading if you missed it.)
“I was always attracted to this project that James had such passion for, because of the disagreements these four guys had together,” Rodgers said. “Back in the day, it was Klecko and Gastineau disagreeing, and now it’s more Lyons and Gastineau. I feel like the question the film asks is: ‘Do you have to get along with others in order to be great together?’ They were great together, there’s no doubt. But you can ask the question: If they got along better, could they have reached even greater heights? I don’t know the answer to that. But the theme of the film ends up being about forgiveness and accepting.”
The most remarkable moment of the film — and it will likely go viral when it comes out — was footage the producers procured of Gastineau last fall going up to longtime NFL quarterback Brett Favre at a memorabilia show in Chicago and laying into a bewildered-looking Favre about letting New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan break Gastineau’s 1984 single-season sack record of 22 (Strahan holds the current record with 22.5 on a gifted sack from Favre in 2001). The footage has never aired publicly.
“It is the real-time moment of the film, and it has never been seen before,” Rodgers said. “We found out that they were going to be together at a card show in Chicago signing autographs, though Abdul ended up not making it. Our goal was to just capture the three of them together. When we got there, Mark was discussing with Klecko and Lyons the fact that Brett Favre was there and how he’s finally going to go talk to him because he had never had a chance to confront him. We were following Mark and when it happened, and it’s as genuine as it looks. He was 100 percent expressing that hurt. I think Farve was 100 percent bewildered at the response and the vehemence of it.
“It got serious very quickly,” Rodgers continued. “Everyone in the room realized it was serious. I don’t know that there was a thought that they would come to blows, but there was true emotion. It really does still stick with Mark. He feels it’s an unfair breaking of his record. I think if he were to blame anybody, he might blame the NFL for letting it happen second to Favre first. I don’t want to speak for him, but I think he feels robbed by that moment.”
GO DEEPER
Mark Gastineau doesn’t need your attention anymore
(Top photo: Ronald C. Modra / Getty Images)
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