[howard38]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Gastineau was an underrated all around player. His first Pro Bowl appearance was in a year he had no sacks. I always thought Klecko was a better player, but maybe Gastineau became too enamored of the sack and neglected his other duties (if yu're pinning you ears back every play the running game can eat you alive) All of them come up short for me though. Gastineau had the most Pro Bowls and All-Pro selections with 5 and 3. Klecko was 4 and 2, Martin 4 and 1 and Jones 3 and 1. To me those are a pretty good metric for positions where stats are hard to judge as they were voted on by insiders, not fans. Gastineau is border line at those numbers but his career was fairly short for a down lineman and that 5 year peak was about it for him.

On Strahan, I agree it was kinda lame and I'm a huge Giant fan, but does anyone else remember that he was the greatest RUN STOPPING end of his era? One of the more complete defensive Lineman of his time.

Sacks became an official stat in 1982 (largely because of Gastineau & Klecko) so Gastineau wasn't credited with any during his first pro bowl season. Unofficially he has been credited with twenty, one half sack behind teammate Klecko.

You may be right that he neglected the run somewhat. That's what his detractors said anyway.