Michael Anthony Strahanborn November 21, 1971) is an American television personality, journalist, and former professional football player. He played his entire 15-year professional career as a defensive end for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). A dominant pass rusher, Strahan is currently tied with T. J. Watt for the most NFL single-season quarterback sacks, and helped the Giants win Super Bowl XLII over the New England Patriots in his final season in 2007.
Michael Strahan Facts
- Born: November 21, 1971 (age 52)Houston, Texas, U.S.
- Height: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
- Weight: 255 lb (116 kg)
- High School: Westbury (Houston, Texas)
- College: Texas Southern (1989–1992)
- NFL Draft: 1993 / Round: 2 / Pick: 40
Michael Strahan Early life
Strahan was born in Houston. The youngest of six children, he is the son of Louise (Traylor) Strahan, a basketball coach, and Gene Willie Strahan, a retired Army Major and a boxer with a 1–1 record against future heavyweight Ken Norton. He is the nephew of retired NFL defensive lineman Art Strahan. Strahan When Strahan was 9, his family moved to Army post BFV (Benjamin Franklin Village) in Mannheim, West Germany. Although Strahan did not begin to play high school football at Westbury High School until his senior year, he did play organized football at Mannheim American High School (MAHS), a US Department of Defense Dependent High School, in Käfertal (Mannheim), playing linebacker for the Mannheim Bison in 1985.
The summer before Strahan’s senior year of high school, his father sent him to live with his uncle Art in Houston so he could attend Westbury High School. Strahan played one season of football, which was enough for him to get a scholarship offer from Texas Southern University. Strahan graduated from Texas Southern University in 1993 and entered the National Football League.
Michael Strahan College career
Strahan followed in the footsteps of his uncle Art, who also played defensive end at Texas Southern University. Strahan was so dominant he drew double teams, and TSU coaches dubbed Strahan double teaming “Strahan rules”. By his junior season, Strahan began to turn himself into an NFL prospect.As a senior with the Texas Southern Tigers, Strahan was selected to the All-America first-team by The Poor Man’s Guide to the NFL Draft, Strahan The Sheridan Network, Edd Hayes Black College Sports Report and the
Associated Press. He recorded 68 tackles with a school-record 19 quarterback sacks and 32 tackles totaling 142 yards in losses. He was also selected Division I-AA Defensive Player of the Year by The Poor Man’s Guide and Edd Hayes Black College Sports Report. In 1992, he was named First-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and the SWAC’s Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. He was also named Black College Defensive Player of the Year. As a junior in 1991, Strahan led the SWAC with 14.5 quarterback sacks. His 41.5 career sacks is a Texas Southern recordHe was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2014
Michael StrahanProfessional career
Strahan trahan was drafted in the second round by the New York Giants in 1993He played in only six games due to injuries, and missed the Giants’ two playoff games that season. After a few unremarkable seasons, Strahan had a breakout season in 1997, recording 14 sacks. He was voted into his first Pro Bowl and was also named First-team All-Pro by the Associated Press. In 1998, Strahan continued his success, racking up 15 sacks and being voted into his second Pro-Bowl and All-Pro team. In Week 8 of the 1999 season, Strahan returned an interception 44 yards for a game-winning overtime touchdown in a 23–17 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Middle career
Strahan was a member of the 2000 Giants and participated in their playoff run to Super Bowl Despite coming off a strong NFC Championship Game, where the Giants defeated the Minnesota Vikings 41–0, the Baltimore Ravens proved too strong for the Giants and they were handily defeated by a score of 34–7. In 2002, Strahan and the Giants negotiated on a new contract. He said the team failed to negotiate after he turned down its first contract proposal. Strahan He accused the front office of not trying to be competitive in 2002. Four days later, running back Tiki Barber ripped him for being selfish and greedy. The two had a heated phone conversation that night, and Strahan said they no longer speak. It also surfaced in the spring that the Giants explored trading Strahan, after which he suggested that management had orchestrated the contract flap to make him look bad. The team denied that
Few defensive ends in the NFL were more dominant than Strahan from 1997 to 2005. He was named the 2001 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and was a two-time NFC Defensive Player of the Year (in 2001 and 2003). Throughout the greater part of the 2004 season, Strahan was injured with a torn pectoral muscle, which limited him to only four sacks. He rebounded in 2005, returning to the Pro Bowl, with his protégé, Osi Umenyiora, as the two combined for 26 sacks while anchoring the Giants’ defense. Strahan was considered by many coaches, peers, and experts as the standard, and best at his position during the prime of his career (1997–2005). He was also regarded as one of if not the best defensive end ever at defending the run, which made people and peers view him as a complete defensive end.[according to
Michael Strahan 2001: Record set for sacks in a single season
Strahan In the 2001 season, Strahan set the NFL record for sacks in a single season with 22.5, the highest tally since it was made an official statistic in 1982, breaking New York Jet Mark Gastineau’s total of 22. In the final game of the season on January 6, 2002, with Strahan coming free, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre slid down and Strahan fell on top of Favre for an easy sack. After the play, during the
ensuing celebration, many of the Giants’ defensive players patted Favre on the helmet. At least one observer accused Favre of deliberately falling to ensure that Strahan would get the record. However, Packers right tackle Mark Tauscher claimed it was just a bad play and “we wanted to avoid that sack.”
Michael Strahan Later career
Strahan On October 23, 2006, with a sack on Drew Bledsoe in a Monday Night Football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Strahan tied Lawrence Taylor for the Giants franchise record for most career sacks with by Taylor in his rookie season of 1981, the year before sacks became an official NFL statistic). It was the last sack Strahan would get that season, as two weeks later he suffered a Lisfranc fracture in a game against the Houston Texans and would miss the remainder of the season and the playoffs.
It seemed as though Strahan would retire after the 2006 season when he did not report to Giants training camp and missed the entire preseason, but the 14-year veteran opted to return for one final year. His 15th and final season proved to be the Giants’ first championship since 1990. On September 30, 2007, he sacked Donovan McNabb from the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football, increasing his career total to 133.5, setting a new franchise record. On Sunday, February 3, 2008, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, Strahan had two tackles and one sack in Super Bowl XLII, in what is considered one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. Bolstered by a strong defense and unrelenting pass rush, the Giants went on to win the game 17–14, over the previously undefeated New England Patriots, giving Strahan a Super Bowl win. His saying was “Stomp you out!”