Michael Strahan’s sack of Brett Favre. Cal Ripken’s home run off of Chan Ho Park in his final All Star appearance. The list goes on and on. Oftentimes when a respected player is about to set a record or on the verge of a special moment, he or she will get a little assistance from an opponent.
Playing in the final game of the regular season and just a half-sack away from breaking Strahan’s single-season record of 22.5 sacks, Jared Allen was not the recipient of such generosity. And make no mistake about it, he would have liked it if Bears quarterback Josh McCown handed him the record.
“A sack is a sack is a sack,” Allen said during an interview with WHB in Kansas City. “There was about three times when I hit (McCown) 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. … There’s been a lot of talk about that. I guess the biggest controversy is, was it a pass or was it a run? I’ve gotten sacks where I’ve chased guys out of bounds. I haven’t had one yet where a guy slides and I get to touch him down, but I’ve gotten them any which way possible, but a sack is a sack is a sack and they’re still hard to come by.”
Allen obviously has no problem with the way Strahan came about his record-breaking sack. Personally, I can see both sides of the argument. On one end you have a respectable player working hard to break a record. Had McCown laid down and given Allen the record it would have been fine since the same was done for Strahan. But what about before? Is it fair to a former record-holder who had to earn every sack? These are the questions…these are the questions.
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