Background and career
Michael Anthony Strahan ( STRAY-han; born November 21, 1971) is an American television host and former professional football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons with the New York Giants. A dominant pass rusher, Strahan set the NFL single-season record for quarterback sacks and helped the Giants win Super Bowl XLII in his final season in 2007. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014. After retiring from the NFL, Strahan became a media personality. He appears as a football analyst on Fox NFL Sunday, and served as a co-host of ABC's Good Morning America as well as Live! with Kelly and Michael with Kelly Ripa from 2012 to 2016, for which he won two Daytime Emmy Awards. He has also made guest appearances on game shows and other programs. In 2014, he became a regular contributor on Good Morning America, and in 2016 the network announced that Strahan would be leaving Live! to join GMA full-time. He also hosts the current incarnation of the Pyramid game show for ABC. Strahan flew on a suborbital space flight on December 11, 2021, aboard the Blue Origin NS-19. At 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m), he became the tallest person to fly in space.
Strahan was born in Houston. He is the nephew of retired NFL defensive lineman Art Strahan. When Strahan was nine, his family moved to Army post BFV (Benjamin Franklin Village) in Mannheim, West Germany. Strahan attended Mannheim American High School (MAHS), a US Department of Defense Dependent High School, and played linebacker for the Mannheim Bison, the school's football team. The summer before Strahan's senior year of high school, his father sent him to live with his uncle Art in Houston so that he could attend Westbury High School. Strahan played one season of football, which was enough to earn him to get a scholarship offer from Texas Southern University.
Strahan followed in the footsteps of his uncle Art, who also played defensive end at Texas Southern University. Strahan was so dominant that 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, 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 are a Texas Southern record. He was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2014. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2025.
Strahan was selected in the second round by the New York Giants in 1993. He 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.
Strahan was a member of the 2000 Giants and participated in their playoff run to Super Bowl XXXV. 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. 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.
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."
