EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Deep in the bowels of Giants Stadium a cell phone rings.

"It's Mark Gastineau," the voice says, "Listen, I'm just leaving Manhattan now. Am I too late? I spent my whole life being late, disappointing people. I'm trying to change that. If I'm too late and you want to forget it, I understand."

	Mark Gastineau is No. 1 on the NFL's all-time, single-season sack list with 22.

No, the former New York Jets defensive end is told, go ahead. Actually, on so many levels, he is right on time.

The Wednesday interview is in locker room A, adjacent to the Jets' old locker room.

"It's been a long time," Gastineau says, "but I think I can find it."

In 1984, Gastineau was basically unstoppable.

At 6-foot-5, 265 pounds, he was unnaturally fast, yet had the upper-body strength to muscle the 300-pound offensive tackles he found in his path to the quarterback. Only three years after the sack statistic formally came into being, Gastineau recorded 22 -- exactly half the Jets' total that season.

Seventeen years later, the record still stands. Lawrence Taylor had 20½ in 1986, Reggie White produced 21 a year later and Chris Doleman equaled that in 1989. Derrick Thomas savaged Seattle for seven sacks in a single 1990 game but finished with 20.

Bruce Smith, Kevin Greene, Dana Stubblefield, Kevin Carter, Jevon Kearse, La'Roi Glover -- none of them have been able to equal Gastineau's feat. But now, perhaps the most serious threat to the record has materialized in the very stadium in which Gastineau performed.

New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan has 14 sacks through the first eight games of the season. He was sackless in the first two games, then had three against the Saints opposite Pro Bowl tackle Kyle Turley, 1½ versus Washington and then dropped a ridiculous four on the St. Louis Rams. He has 5½ sacks in the past three games and needs to average only one in each of the remaining eight regular-season games to equal Gastineau. Nine would break the record.

The Giants -- from head coach Jim Fassel to defensive coordinator John Fox to defensive end Kenny Holmes -- all think Strahan will do it. Oddly enough, so does Gastineau.

"It surprised me that it's been so long that I've had (the record)," Gastineau says. "It's amazing how time goes by. I've never felt in my heart that anybody was going to get it up until now. And I really do feel that he is on track of breaking the record -- and he might break it pretty large.

"I have no resentment, and I think that's what the Lord has placed in my heart. If he gets the record, then all things do work together."

The last time Gastineau surfaced publicly was Aug. 7 in Hempstead, N.Y. at the Jets training facility. He was responding to harsh comments made a week earlier by Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who had vowed to break Gastineau's record.

"I don't think a convicted felon should be the all-time sack leader," Sapp said. "I don't think a guy sitting in Rikers Island should have his name on top of an NFL record book, and I'm going to take it down."

Considering the circumstances, Gastineau was generous in his observations.

"I would rather him get my sack record than for him to go to Rikers Island," Gastineau said, who had been released from prison 2½ weeks earlier after serving 11 months of a 15-month prison sentence for assaulting his wife. "I would never wish that on him."

If Sapp breaks the record, Gastineau said, sitting in the bleachers at Hofstra University, "God bless him."

	Mark Gastineau was convicted in 1998 of assaulting his wife and spent 11 months at Rikers Island.

Gastineau talked expansively about his new, powerful relationship with God, his wish to put his earlier, turbulent life behind him. And while Gastineau's comments were met with skepticism by a cynical media that had heard these kinds of things from him before, there was an unmistakable earnestness in his words.

"The adulterous life I lived, the way I lived my life with Brigitte Nielsen, not respecting my wife and my marriage, it took its toll," he said. "It was a devastating thing for me."

Gastineau left the Jets in 1988 during a high-profile affair with the statuesque actress. In 1998, Gastineau was convicted of assaulting his wife, Patricia. He was released but returned to Rikers Island in January for repeatedly violating the terms of his parole.

"There was a lot of resentment toward me when I left the game, the way I left that game," Gastineau said Thursday. "It hurt a lot of fans, but it hurt me more than anybody could ever hurt because it destroyed my credibility here in New York.

"I never thought those years of getting sacks and being on top, being blessed one game after another -- I never thought those years were over. When you hit bottom, you search around, you find out that all your friends that you thought were there, are gone.

"It's been tough on me, real tough, and there is life after football. When you leave the game, and you left it like I did, and then you do things that you, really, really … I didn't murder anybody, I didn't kill anybody and forgiveness is something that I've found at my church. People don't judge me and they hope and wish me well and they're there to help me -- and a person does need help.

"I mean, we go through trials -- everything is not rosey in this life."

Gastineau, in classic turn-the-other-cheek fashion, wishes the Bucs' Sapp no ill will. The Lord, it is said, works in mysterious ways.

Seven games into the season, Sapp has exactly one sack.

Of all places, Mark Gastineau says he found his salvation in Times Square. The Times Square Church, an apparent oxymoron if there ever was one, is where you will find him a lot these days.

Gastineau drove up to Giants Stadium in a big pickup truck late Wednesday afternoon, accompanied by a friend named Jim from the church. Gastineau will turn 45 on Nov. 20, but he didn't look his age.

He stood tall, clear-eyed, shoulders back, comfortable in a dark three-piece suit and a lean body substantially under his playing weight. His jet-black hair was impeccably moussed with only a few traces of gray. He had a firm hand shake and a powerful case of eye contact not always present in those whose lives have been reduced to rubble.

His deep, George Hamilton tan, he insisted, was not a matter of vanity. It was, he said, the only way to keep his congenital psoriasis under control.

"I've got to tell you," Gastineau said before sitting down for his interview that will air on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown. "I'm really nervous about this. I haven't done any interviews or anything."

Still, there was a peace about him.

Gastineau senses a vague opportunity here -- a chance to present an alternative to the boisterous, arrogant caricature that left the NFL stage in 1988. As Strahan closes in on his record, Gastineau will be increasingly in demand. Just as interest in Roger Maris spiked when Mark McGwire approached his long-held home run record, Gastineau is about to be handed a second 15 minutes of fame.

While Strahan and Gastineau are built along the same lines -- the 275-pound Strahan plays three or four pounds heavier than Gastineau did -- they reach the quarterback by different means. Gastineau, whose acceleration was, frankly, amazing, ran around would-be blockers most of the time. Strahan, more often than not, takes the direct route, using his strength to go straight through the men standing in his way.

Nevertheless, Gastineau sees similarities. He was genuinely disappointed Wednesday when he missed a chance to meet with Strahan. Speaking from hard-bought experience, he has some advice.

"He's a smart player, hopefully he's a smart person off the field," Gastineau said. "It's going to be over though, those years are going to be over. If I were in a meeting, I could say, 'Listen, I was you not too long ago. And I was making $65,000 a week.'

	“	If you don't have the right people around you, the people that really, truly want what's best for you, it can work out to be something that is disastrous. ”
		— Mark Gastineau, ex-Jets defensive end

"Let me tell you something, if you don't have the right people around you, the people that really, truly want what's best for you, it can work out to be something that is disastrous."

Gastineau, who lives in nearby Forest Hills, N.Y., seems to be genuinely pulling for Strahan. He hopes to be in attendance when (and if) the record falls. Since the Giants play their last three games at home against Arizona and Seattle and down the road at Philadelphia, it could actually work out.

There is, it seems, a cosmic symmetry to it all.

"I watch football now, because I'm paying attention," Gastineau says. "It was hard for me to watch for a long time. I mean, I've been through a lot of fire, and to get out of the fire you have to have a really positive attitude.

"The Lord never left me. I'm picking myself back up and I'm putting my trust in him, and he has plans for me. He has plans to give me hope and a future."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.