Michael Strahan

This excerpt from The Big 50: The Men and Moments That Made the New York Giants by Patricia Traina is reprinted with the permission of Triumph Books.

Michael Strahan flashed his famous gap-tooth grin as he addressed the reporters assembled before him.

“My career has far exceeded all expectations,” he said, at times getting choked up. “I was hoping to get in maybe three years and move back in with my parents. That was my goal. As far as accomplishments, personally, Wow! You hear about games played and sacks and [being mentioned with] Lawrence Taylor and all these guys. To do the things I’ve done, it just doesn’t seem real.” 

Indeed, the Giants were only too happy to take the entire package— the on-field accomplishments, the leadership, and yes, even the bad days that all players had on occasion—from a player who, much like Taylor in his prime, dominated.

Strahan, a 1994 second-round pick out of Texas Southern (the Giants didn’t have a first-round pick that year because they had spent the first-round pick in the 1993 supplemental draft to acquire quarterback Dave Brown) was initially supposed to be a situational pass rusher.

Injuries would limit him to six games as a rookie. Then over the next three seasons, he recorded 4.5 sacks in 1994, 7.5 sacks in 1995, and 5.0 sacks in 1996, numbers that fell within what was expected.

Then came 1997, the year of Strahan’s official arrival. That year he recorded the first of two consecutive double-digit sack seasons (14.0 in 1997 and 15.0 in 1998). He began to establish himself as a player against whom offensive coordinators would double—if not triple—team to try to slow him down.

What was it about Strahan that made him such a dominating opponent for scores of offensive tackles who tried—and often failed—to neutralize him?

According to fellow defensive end Osi Umenyiora, the Giants’ second-round pick in the 2003 draft who became Strahan’s pass-rushing protégé, Strahan wasn’t the strongest guy on the field nor the fastest.

But he was by far the best at what he did, a man who seemed to impose his will on others whenever he set his mind to doing so, resulting in pure domination of some of the league’s best offensive tackles.

Umenyiora, an impressionable young kid at the time out of Troy, was intrigued and wanted to find out what it was that made Strahan such a superhuman power on the field.

Putting aside some trepidation because, as Umenyiora said, Strahan was the “biggest personality I had ever been around,” he reached out to the veteran to pick his brain.

To his surprise and delight, Strahan was more than happy to share his tricks of the trade with Umenyiora, including a couple of valuable intangibles Umenyiora swears were instrumental in him developing his own game as a pass-rusher.

“The first thing he taught me was what you might call ‘want-to.’ He literally wanted it more than the other people,” Umenyiora said.

“I know it sounds like a cliché, but to see someone who was that hungry go out there and because he wants to physically impose his will on somebody, he finds success, that rubbed off on you when you’re watching and learning from him.

“The second thing was he would do things that other people weren’t doing after practice, like working out and watching film and taking care of his body. After practice, a lot of guys couldn’t wait to get in their cars and go home for the day. But there was Stray still working after hours doing the little things that allow you to play in this league for a long period and at a higher level even against the more talented guys you might face on Sunday.”

Umenyiora paused for a moment and said, “He’s the reason why I became a successful football player. The things he told me to do, I did, and that let me take my game to the next level. I owe him so much, man. He means the world to me.”

* * *

The laws of physics suggest that when two heavy masses collide against one another and exert force, the heavier should prevail.

Strahan, who routinely faced offensive tackles who had 30-plus pounds on him, was an anomaly who used his tremendous quickness off the line and his swift hands to get the upper hand against his opponents.

Simply put, Strahan would time his jump so that when the ball was snapped, he often got his hands into his opponent’s chest before the tackle could set up in his pass block. This usually meant that Strahan was successful in catching his opponents off-balance, leaving them unable to extend their arms to keep him at bay or to swat away his punch.

Strahan would then use his strength and momentum to push into the opponent’s chest, often knocking him to the ground because the opponent was off balance. With the man in front of him out of the way, Strahan was then free to wreak havoc in the opponent’s backfield.

That’s exactly what he did in the Giants 2000 playoff run. Strahan’s

4.5 postseason sacks were second that year, behind Ravens defensive end Michael McCrary’s 6.0.

In the 2000 divisional playoff game against the Eagles, Strahan went against Jon Runyan, one of his regular divisional battles and probably one of his most fun to watch. Runyan, a 6'7", 330-pounder who mostly lined up at right tackle for the Eagles during the 2000–08 seasons, faced Strahan 15 times over his career. In their first five meetings, Strahan got

8.0 of the 14.5 sacks he’d logged against the Eagles offensive line. In that divisional playoff game against Runyan and the Eagles,

Strahan finished with four tackles, 2.0 sacks, one tackle for loss, and a big forced fumble that came on his second sack of quarterback Donovan McNabb, the ensuing Giants recovery snuffing out the Eagles scoring drive.

In the 2000 NFC title game against the Vikings, Strahan lined up across from Korey Stringer, who outweighed him by over 50 pounds. Regardless, Strahan managed to record two tackles and one sack which came early in the second quarter on second-and-14 on the drive just before the Giants would go up 24–0 in their eventual 41–0 rout of the Vikings.

Although the Ravens got the better of the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV, Strahan still managed to come up with six tackles (five solo) and  1.5 sacks. 

* * *

Ask any athlete how he or she would like to wind down a lengthy career, and he or she will probably tell you that they’d like to do so, having won the top prize in their respective sport.

For Strahan, that would have been achieving NFL immortality by winning a Super Bowl championship, something that he had come close to reaching in 2000 only to see his Giants end up as literally no match for the Baltimore Ravens.

But long before the Giants 2007 roster, to borrow one of Strahan’s most famous battle cries, “stomped out” the New England Patriots’ quest for a perfect season, the defensive end was at a crossroads.

Facing his 15th NFL season, Strahan, who by that point in his career had also been named as the 2001 AP Defensive Player of the Year, voted to seven Pro Bowls and four first–team All-Pros, and to the Pro Bowl seven times as part of a Hall of Fame résumé, was contemplating retirement.

When the Giants reported to the State University of New York at Albany on July 27, 2007, for training camp, they did so without their defensive captain. Whereas Strahan always insisted his absence was due to his uncertainty, his critics believed he simply didn’t want to subject himself to the rigors of training camp.

Strahan tried to set the record straight by releasing a heartfelt open letter to Giants fans via his agent, Tony Agnone.

“When an athlete like myself who does what I do for a living starts having doubts, then it’s time to take a step back and seriously consider my future,” Strahan said in his letter. “Anyone who plays in the NFL with doubts or second-guessing is not only putting themselves at risk but their teammates also. I will never do that.”

Strahan even reached out to head coach Tom Coughlin and general manager Jerry Reese to assure them that his absence was strictly about him doing soul searching about whether he was up for a 15th NFL season.

The Giants, who had roster decisions to make if Strahan was indeed going to retire, briefly looked into adding Simeon Rice, who had previously played with the Cardinals and Bucs.

In the end, Strahan, whose 2006 season had been cut short due to a Lisfranc injury, reported to the Giants facility on September 3, 2007. In a show of good faith, the Giants, who had fined him $14,288 for each day of training camp he missed, absolved a good portion of that fine as they welcomed No. 92 back into the fold.

In 16 games that year, Strahan went on to record 57 tackles, 9.0 sacks, and two passes defensed, but he would save his best performance for the four-game postseason, logging 23 tackles, seven quarterback hits (including 2.0 sacks), one pass defensed and two forced fumbles as the Giants rolled to their third Super Bowl championship.

* * *

Sometime after the last piece of confetti from the parade down New York City’s famed Canyon of Heroes honoring the Super Bowl XLII heroes fell, Michael Strahan decided there would not be a 16th season.

During his June 2008 retirement press conference, Strahan, who finished with 141.5 career sacks that saw him lead the league twice (in 2001 and 2003) in that category, admitted that he struggled with the decision, especially after those close to him told him he had more left to give.

“The 15 years have taken a toll on me,” he said before the packed house gathered to bid his playing career farewell.

“I don’t think I could muster it up and do it one more time. Usually, in sports, you go out when they tell you to go out. I have an opportunity to leave when I want to leave.

“And that is the best thing about this. I have been blessed with great health. I think after 15 years, the man upstairs said, ‘Michael, I let you stick around for 15 years. I gave you a ring. Now don’t be stupid.’ So, I’m trying not to be stupid.”

Did he have any regrets?

“Not at all. I’ve been through the good times; I’ve been through the fires. But it’s made me so much better I feel like I can handle anything. I’m able to leave as a champion. I’m able to leave as a New York Giant—15 years as a New York Giant, the only place I’ve known, the only uniform I’ve ever put on. And that’s something very special to me.”

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You can read more about the events leading up to Strahan's record-setting sack in the sidebar contained in the chapter. 

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This excerpt from The Big 50: The Men and Moments That Made the New York Giants by Patricia Traina is reprinted with the permission of Triumph Books. For more information or to order a copy, please visit Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop.org, or Triumph Books.

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