When Mark Gastineau and his spouse got here to see this property for the primary time just a few years in the past, he stopped on the bushes which might be the colour of the uniform he as soon as wore. The realtor instructed them to return inside and go searching, however Gastineau didn’t have to go inside. All he wanted to see had been the bushes.
“They’re essentially the most lovely bushes on the planet,” he says. “I really like them.”
Gastineau was some of the achieved cross rushers in NFL historical past. But greater than that, he was a star. After video games ended and his teammates left, he typically stayed on the Shea Stadium area so he might really feel the group’s roar in his chest. He sat on discuss present couches for David Letterman, Oprah and Dick Cavett. He gained the 1985 “Superstars” competitors in Miami and was featured in a six-page unfold for “Playgirl” journal titled, “Mark Gastineau: Out of Uniform.”
Gastineau nonetheless is the sort of one who turns heads on the grocery retailer, with thick black hair slicked again right into a mullet that will stand proud of the again of a helmet if he nonetheless wore one. But he’s 67 now, residing with the reverberations of the life he led.
Like lots of yesterday’s soccer heroes, Gastineau has cognitive points. Headaches come and go, and he tires extra rapidly than earlier than. At one level he thought he had Parkinson’s, however he says two neurologists have dominated that out.
Gastineau survived Stage 3 colon most cancers in 2019 — he wore a colostomy bag for a yr — however the chemo left him with neuropathy. If provided, he’ll take a hand when getting out of a chair.
As he gazes out at his Arborvitae, what’s sure is Mark Gastineau isn’t Mark Gastineau anymore.
In his desires, he was a rodeo cowboy, however as a toddler rising up on his household’s ranch within the White Mountains of Arizona, Gastineau lacked confidence. Other youngsters bullied him.
In 2019, Gastineau instructed the New York Post he had been repeatedly raped as a toddler, beginning when he was 11, by a employee on the ranch. Terrified for his household’s security, he defined to the Post, he had repressed the recollections for greater than 4 many years.
Gastineau repressed nothing else. Everything was a plea for acknowledgment. He was labeled an consideration seeker. Really, he was an consideration needer.
He carried out his first sack dance at Round Valley High School in Arizona, then started a university expertise that settled at East Central Oklahoma, an NAIA college. He had 27 sacks there and danced loads.
Speed was his present, so he labored to boost it by working downhill in his driveway time and again in an early adaptation of overspeed coaching. When an NFL scout timed him within the 40-yard sprint, Gastineau ran 4.6 seconds at 265 kilos. In disbelief, the scout instructed him to do it once more. After one other 4.6, the scout mentioned his watch should have been off. He tried one other, and Gastineau ran a 4.59.
Jets coaches had been answerable for the North staff on the 1979 Senior Bowl and wanted a last-minute alternative participant. New York’s Connie Carberg, the NFL’s first feminine scout, researched the chances. She phoned Gastineau to really feel him out and was impressed by his dedication and enthusiasm, so she beneficial him.
His efficiency was so spectacular that he was voted essentially the most excellent defensive lineman on the North staff, and the Jets drafted him within the second spherical.
Mark Gastineau was a pioneer of each the quarterback sack and the post-sack celebration. (Tom Berg / Getty Images)
Gastineau rushed the passer like fireplace on a path of gasoline.
“Dominant is the primary phrase that involves your thoughts,” fellow Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko says. “In his greatest days as a cross rusher, I don’t suppose there was any higher.”
Weighing as a lot as 290 kilos, Gastineau bench-pressed 400 and squatted 600. With the searching instincts of an enormous cat — and an edge from the steroids he admits to taking — Gastineau went after quarterbacks with bloodlust.
“If the quarterback obtained up, I didn’t do my job,” Gastineau says.
In his third season in 1981, he had 20 sacks, one-half lower than the league-leading Klecko. When the NFL made sacks an official statistic two years later, Gastineau’s 19 topped the league. Fans began calling the Jets’ D-line of Gastineau, Klecko, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam “The New York Sack Exchange.” Team publicist Frank Ramos used it in press releases.
After sacks, Gastineau celebrated by pumping his arms, leaping and punching a fist to the sky. “I’d simply go nuts,” he says.
Happy birthday to our favourite sack dancer, Mark Gastineau!! pic.twitter.com/aQo5pvwLtg
— New York Jets (@nyjets) November 20, 2019
“He was like a younger colt, filled with power, enthusiasm and keenness,” Carberg says.
“I’d need to imagine that Mark singlehandedly made the sack a glamorous play and made the NFL begin retaining the sack as a significant statistic,” Jets coach Joe Walton as soon as mentioned. “He introduced consideration to it like nobody earlier than.”
The look-at-me wasn’t all the time effectively acquired, nevertheless. In 1983, Rams offensive sort out Jackie Slater took offense and went after Gastineau, precipitating a melee that noticed 37 gamers fined.
It was the primary of two brawls that week for Gastineau. Early one morning at Studio 54, the New York nightclub the place celebrities and bother all the time may very well be discovered, noses had been damaged and arrests made. Gastineau was convicted of misdemeanor assault and sentenced to 90 days of neighborhood service.
Klecko, the throwback, and Gastineau, the throwforward, had been a fierce tandem on the sector however an uncomfortable one away from it. “I didn’t like what he was doing in any respect,” says Klecko, the chief of the protection. “But he appreciated that highlight.”
At one level, Klecko led Gastineau into coach Bob Reese’s workplace. He closed the door and locked it. Then he pounded his thick index finger into Gastineau’s shaved chest.
“Your sack dance is killing us,” he instructed him. “You have to chop this s— out.”
The level was made.
“I used to be undoubtedly afraid of Klecko,” he says. “He was two years above me, robust as an ox and knew the right way to intimidate.”
It wasn’t simply the sack celebrations that created rifts. The opinions on Gastineau’s run protection had been blended. His relentlessness and talent to penetrate usually resulted in working backs being dropped within the backfield, however on different performs, his hole project seemed like a wide-open freeway.
“Mark apprehensive concerning the statistics greater than I or anyone else did,” Klecko says. “He all the time wished to get to the quarterback immediately, so we used to need to make coverups on the run.”
An alternative arose for a New York Sack Exchange poster, however Gastineau’s agent tried to make it a Gastineau poster. Eventually, after exhausting emotions, he was talked into posing with the others.
When teammates took challenge with how he drew consideration to himself, Gastineau purposely drew extra, sporting a mink coat and driving a Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari and a Lamborghini. “Just to get again at them and piss them off,” he says.
Walton, nevertheless, instructed Klecko to go straightforward on Gastineau. The coach acknowledged having two units of guidelines — one for the remainder of the gamers and one for Gastineau. He was the one one allowed to make use of the phone within the coach’s room. If he was late for conferences — and he usually was — nobody was to say something. Gastineau’s father, Ernie, ran the 40-yard sprint with gamers.
“That staff was filled with cliques and petty jealousies,” says then-Jets extensive receiver Wesley Walker, who remembers one teammate spitting a wad of chewing tobacco in Gastineau’s soda cup when he wasn’t wanting.
Walker didn’t have an issue with the sack dances — “Those are issues I loved,” he mentioned. “He didn’t do it in a malicious means. He created one thing. Plenty of guys try this now.” But earlier than the 1984 season, the NFL handed a rule that mentioned gamers who participated in extended, extreme or premeditated celebrations could be penalized 15 yards. It was known as “The Gastineau Rule.”
Despite his manufacturing, Gastineau’s New York Sack Exchange teammates Joe Klecko (middle) and Marty Lyons (proper) had little love for him whereas he was enjoying. (Focus on Sport / Getty Images)
With 22 sacks that yr, Gastineau set a file that stood for 17 seasons. “I simply bear in mind him bringing it each play,” says Hall of Fame Houston Oilers offensive lineman Bruce Matthews, whom Gastineau beat for a kind of sacks.
The sacks gained him followers however not mates. Teammates voted working again Freeman McNeil most beneficial participant on the Jets after he rushed for 1,070 yards — Thirteenth-most within the NFL. At the Pro Bowl that season, one in every of 5 he performed in, Gastineau had 4 sacks and two pressured fumbles on the way in which to being named MVP. Then Klecko swiped Gastineau’s helmet and gave it to Raiders Pro Bowler Howie Long as a memento.
In a 1986 divisional-round playoff towards the Browns, Gastineau was decided to knock quarterback Bernie Kosar out of the sport. In the fourth quarter, Gastineau hit him with such fury and power that he popped three enamel from his mouth.
The hit was gratifying however solely momentarily. It was third-and-24, and Gastineau was assessed a roughing-the-passer penalty that saved alive a landing drive that enabled Kosar and the Browns to win in double time beyond regulation. Gastineau’s teammates refused to talk to him afterward.
When gamers went on strike the next summer time, Gastineau crossed the picket line, saying he wanted the cash to pay his estranged spouse. As he was getting into the Jets facility, teammates spit on his automotive. He obtained out of the automotive swinging.
While he was nonetheless married to his first spouse, Gastineau started seeing Brigitte Nielsen, the 6-foot-1 Danish mannequin identified for her roles in “Red Sonja” and “Rocky IV” contemporary off relationships with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Nielsen had her individuals get in contact along with his individuals after she noticed him in a televised interview sporting nothing however a towel. They turned the Taylor and Travis of their day. “People” journal featured them on the duvet, calling them “a pair of humongous lovebirds … unable to maintain their palms or lips off one another.”
Through the primary seven video games of the 1988 season, Gastineau appeared revitalized. He was chosen to function a sport captain for the primary time in his profession, drew reward from teammates and was main the AFC in sacks. He attributed his success to his happiness with Nielsen. But the connection finally turned a wedge between him and the Jets.
Walker walked into an elevator on the staff lodge and noticed the 2 of them, anticipating an introduction, however Gastineau by no means seemed up, by no means mentioned a phrase.
“I beloved Mark and all my teammates,” Walker says. “But I feel he did issues that didn’t give a superb indication of the kind of particular person he actually was. He obtained to be such a celebrity that he sort of elevated himself over everyone.”
On Oct. 21, 18 days after Gastineau had three sacks in a sport towards the Chiefs, the 31-year-old surprised his staff by saying his retirement, citing Nielsen’s ovarian most cancers analysis that was later found to be a precancerous situation.
After quitting soccer, Gastineau and Nielsen had one another’s names tattooed on their derrieres and partied from New York to Denmark to Scottsdale to Los Angeles. They broke up. She accused him of hitting her. They obtained again collectively. She obtained pregnant. Wherever they went, they noticed spots from picture flashes. Gastineau says his ingesting turned a demon. It could be evident many instances within the subsequent dozen years or so.
After a tumultuous couple of years, Gastineau and Nielsen cut up for good in 1990. There was a comeback try within the Canadian Football League that lasted simply 4 video games, then a short-lived reincarnation as a boxer, the place a few of Gastineau’s opponents admitted throwing fights. He confronted drug costs in 1993 after being arrested with 200 amphetamine tablets at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix and was finally sentenced to 3 years of probation.
Multiple ladies accused Gastineau of home abuse, together with Nielsen and his second spouse. He denies these allegations. In 1998, he was charged with misdemeanor assault, menacing and legal possession of a weapon towards his then-girlfriend, who turned his second spouse shortly thereafter (a yr later, he was arrested for violating a safety order she obtained towards him).
Gastineau pled responsible and was sentenced to endure counseling. He failed to indicate up and was sentenced to serve weekends in jail. When he skipped a weekend, he was ordered to spend one yr at a residential remedy middle within the Bronx. He says his legal professional wrongly suggested him that he might go away the state. When he did, he was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in jail.
At Rikers Island, the Bronx jail identified for violence, abuse and squalor, he says inmates tried to intimidate him and shake him down for cash. “Sometimes it was actually, actually, actually scary,” he says. One day a Jets sport got here on the jail tv. And he noticed a participant sporting No. 99 — his quantity. “How did I get right here?” he requested himself.
This was the underside. Right the place he was speculated to be.
Gastineau has discovered peace at residence with Jo Ann and Gracie. (Dan Pompei / The Athletic)
After 11 months, Gastineau was launched from Rikers. When he had been within the residential drug remedy program, he met congregants of Times Square Church who invited him to attend a service there.
Whenever Gastineau met individuals on the church, he launched himself by saying, “Mark Gastineau, New York Jets.” He noticed himself as who he had been, not who he may very well be, and this made him surprise if God — or anybody else — might love him. He met with Pastor David Wilkerson, who based the nondenominational church. “You should not Mark Gastineau anymore,” Wilkerson instructed him. “You are actually a toddler of God.”
In 2005, he met a realtor who didn’t know something about him. “Wait till you examine me,” he instructed her. “I’m not within the Hall of Fame. I’m within the corridor of disgrace.”
She examine him after which got here to imagine he wasn’t Mark Gastineau anymore. “I glided by how he handled me,” says Jo Ann Gastineau, who turned his third spouse in 2007.
Mark led Jo Ann to Times Square Church, which was simply what she wanted. And she was simply what he wanted. They volunteered to clean the church’s public bathrooms and joined the choir. For a weekly rehearsal, they drove from New Jersey, which typically took hours. They took the drive once more on Sundays to carry out at three providers — 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
“He couldn’t sing that effectively, so we put him within the prime row,” pastor Carter Conlon says. “He mentioned he thought it was as a result of he was tall. But it was as a result of the highest row was the farthest from the microphone.
“I didn’t know something about sports activities, however the sports activities followers couldn’t imagine the identical Mark Gastineau who performed for the New York Jets was sporting a gown, clapping his palms, crying and singing.”
But Gastineau was nonetheless fighting one thing — he couldn’t forgive Klecko. Conlon instructed him unforgiveness would damage him greater than Klecko and implored him to let it go. The former teammates had been collectively for an look in 2020 in New Jersey, shortly after Klecko had shoulder surgical procedure. Gastineau prompt they pray for therapeutic. Klecko was deeply appreciative.
“I used to be a younger child,” Klecko says now. “If I might return, I most likely would have been extra accepting of his means and tried to speak to him extra about it. Once the sport is put aside, you could have a distinct life. There isn’t any confrontation between us anymore. I want him all the perfect.”
These days, at any time when they see one another, Gastineau asks about Klecko’s household, and meaning the whole lot to Klecko.
“I shouldn’t have executed the issues that I did,” Gastineau says. “The playboy perspective I had principally introduced me into an environment that was actually improper.”
He was as soon as the highest-paid defensive lineman within the NFL, and gamers across the league envied “Gastineau cash.” But throughout his most cancers ordeal, cash was tight. A GoFundMe effort helped. His previous teammate Lyons organized a fundraiser, and a few highly effective individuals stepped up anonymously.
Gastineau will get by now. Paychecks from appearances assist. He established a scholarship fund by Times Square Church that advantages at-risk youth with “passionate want to serve Jesus by sports activities or music-related ministries.”
Gastineau completed his profession with 107 1/2 sacks — 0.78 sacks per sport performed. The solely gamers with a greater sacks-per-game charge in historical past are T.J. Watt, Deacon Jones, Myles Garrett and Reggie White. Sports Illustrated’s Paul Zimmerman as soon as ranked him historical past’s seventh-greatest cross rusher. Yet along with his sophisticated legacy, Gastineau has by no means been a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“To me, he’s equally deserving as Joe Klecko for the Hall of Fame,” Matthews says. “When you had been getting ready to play the Jets, you highlighted him, and he nonetheless produced. I feel that’s the epitome of a Hall of Fame participant.”
When Klecko was inducted into the Hall of Fame final yr, Gastineau attended. Klecko as soon as mentioned it could be an injustice if Gastineau was inducted. He thinks otherwise now, saying he would vote for him.
Being a Hall of Famer could be good. But Gastineau doesn’t want a gold jacket. He doesn’t have to be observed anymore.
“I’ve an exquisite life, an exquisite spouse and this little canine,” he says, wanting down at Gracie, their Golden Retriever who gained’t cease giving affection. “They each love me, and that’s the whole lot I would like, you already know?”
(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; pictures: Focus on Sport, Rick Stewart /Getty Images, Dan Pompei / The Athletic)
