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© St. Petersburg Times, published August 4, 2002
Single-season sack champ Michael Strahan has heard about Warren Sapp's reaction to his record, and he has an unkind response for the Bucs defensive tackle.
Asked by the Orlando Sentinel about Strahan's 22 1/2 sacks last season, Sapp responded, "Asterisk." The answer referred to the record-breaker coming when Brett Favre appeared to fall at Strahan's feet with time running out in the Giants' final game.
"He'll see me to my face and he'll be nice, but Warren is a jackass," Strahan told New York's Daily News. "So get out of the first round of the playoffs, then you can talk to me."
Strahan has chafed at the suggestion the Packers quarterback handed him the record, and was especially upset to hear it from Sapp.
"I just hope that Warren would realize he needs to worry about getting better because he's talked about going to the Super Bowl for eight or nine years and he has yet to see one. I've seen one. He can talk about getting the sack record. He didn't come close. ... You know what? Stop talking and maybe just do it, and worry about what he's got going on with his team -- before I pull out the film of those guys playing the Eagles in the playoffs where he shut it down on national TV. I'm sick of a guy who ain't even the best defensive tackle in the league talking about (me)."
Coming off a 16 1/2-sack season in 2000, Sapp boasted last summer he would make a run at Mark Gastineau's record of 22. But Sapp played with a tear in the rotator cuff of his left shoulder, an injury sustained in the preseason, and had six sacks.
"Last year when I was getting sacks and Warren Sapp didn't have any, he said, "Uh, if I was only getting single-teamed as much as Michael Strahan,' " Strahan said. "He's always got excuses. You know what? Jealousy sure is something that's hard to get over. ... I don't know, maybe Warren Sapp wishes he was me."