And awkward it was. I always thought Gastineau was a blow hole. Anyway, Favre turns out on a naked bootleg and there's Strahan ready to level him. Favre took a header to KEEP his head in my view...but, he COULD have taken an intentional digger too ... knowing what we know now. Who cares? Except Mark G.
Apparently Gastineau thinks losing the record kept him out of the HOF. Anyway, there was a lot of outrage at the time over it. They said the play was pre-arranged and Favre called the play to give him the record. I have no idea if that is the case or not, apparently Favre has dropped hints that it was, without coming out and saying so. But I always thought the whole thing was blown out of proportion. As you say, other than Gastineau, who cares?
I'm trying to think of another case where an athlete was (allegedly) allowed to score or set a record or something, but I'm drawing a blank. I seem to recall a pitcher throwing up a meatball to allow a retiring player to hit a homerun to finish with a certain number or whatever. Then there's Kobe Bryant's final game, he scored 60, I'm pretty sure the Jazz weren't playing him too hard.