Michael Strahan

Michael Anthony Strahan ( born November 21, 1971) is a former National Football League defensive end who played his entire career for the New York Giants, where he set the record for the most sacks in a single season and won a Super Bowl in his final year. He is currently a football analyst on Fox NFL Sunday, and also a host for Pros vs. Joes alongside fellow Fox football analyst Jay Glazer. He also starred in and produced the short-lived Fox sitcom Brothers.

On August 21, 2012, it was reported that Strahan has been selected as the new co-host of the television morning talk show Live! with Kelly & Michael, alongside Kelly Ripa. His hosting duties began on September 4, 2012, when Live! kicked off its 25th season.

Early life

Strahan is 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m). He is the son of Gene and Louise Strahan; nephew of retired pro football player Arthur Strahan. He is the youngest of 6 children. Gene was a major in the U.S. Army, and at the age of 9, Strahan moved to an army base in Mannheim, Germany.  Although Strahan did not begin to play high school football until his senior year in high school, he did play organized football while attending school in Mannheim, Germany, playing linebacker for the Mannheim Redskins 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. He then flew back for the spring term to Germany, where he graduated from Mannheim Christian Academy.

College career

Strahan followed in the footsteps of his uncle Art, who also had played defensive end at Texas Southern University. Strahan was so dominant he drew double teams, and TSU coaches dubbed the double teaming "Strahan rules." By his junior season, Strahan had begun to turn himself into an NFL prospect. As a senior at Texas Southern, Strahan was selected All-America first team by The Poor Man's Guide to the NFL Draft, The Sheridan Network and the Associated Press, when he recorded 62 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. In 1992 he was named 1st team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference and the SWAC's Player of the Year for the 2nd 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 record.

Awards and honors

• 2× First-team All-SWAC (1991–1992)
• 2× SWAC Defensive Player of the Year (1991–1992)
• First-team AP College-division All-American (1992)

Professional career

Early career (1993–1997)

Strahan was drafted in 1993. He played in only 9 games due to injuries, and missed the playoff game that season. After a few unremarkable seasons, Strahan had a breakout year 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.

Prime years and Super Bowl XXXV (1998–2005)

In 1998, Strahan continued his success, racking up 15 sacks and being voted into his second Pro-Bowl and All-Pro team.

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, who were handily defeated 34–7 (the most recent Super Bowl to date where a team was held to a touchdown or less).

 In the 2001 season, Strahan set the NFL record for sacks in a single season with 22.5, highest since it was made an official statistic in 1982; (breaking New York Jets' Mark Gastineau's total of 22).

In 2002, Michael Strahan and the Giants negotiated on a new contract. Strahan turned down a $17 million offer. Strahan's teammate Tiki Barber criticized Strahan as being "greedy."

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 4 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.

Final years, Super Bowl XLII, and retirement (2006–2008)

It looked 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. On October 23, 2006, with a sack of Drew Bledsoe in a Monday night game against the Dallas Cowboys, Strahan tied Lawrence Taylor for the Giants franchise record for most career sacks with 132½. It was the last sack Strahan would get that season, as two weeks later he suffered a Lisfranc fracture against the Houston Texans and would miss the remainder of the season and the playoffs.

His 15th and final season proved to be the Giants' best season 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. This total does not include 9½ sacks accrued by Taylor in his rookie season of 1981, the year before sacks became an official NFL statistic. On Sunday February 3, 2008, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, Strahan had 2 tackles and 1 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 then-undefeated 18-0 New England Patriots, giving Strahan his first Super Bowl win as an NFL starter. His saying was "Stomp you out!"

On June 9, 2008, Michael retired from the NFL. He told Jay Glazer of Foxsports.com "It's time, I'm done." Strahan will become eligible for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame starting in 2013.

Strahan retired with 141.5 career sacks, 794 career tackles, 4 career interceptions, 21 forced fumbles and 2 career touchdowns in 200 games over a 15 year career (through 2007 season). He was also named to the Pro Bowl roster seven times.

Strahan's 2002 record-breaking sack

With Strahan coming free, 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." New York Times columnist Mike Freeman wrote, "Yes, Mr. Favre, Strahan deserves the record, but please, handing it to him the way you did, as if you were throwing change into a Salvation Army bucket, is the kind of mistake Favre may never live down."

Personal life

Strahan resides in Rutherford, New Jersey.

Through 1996 he was married to Wanda Hutchins in Germany. They have a daughter Tanita (1992) and son Michael Jr (1995). Michael Sr. moved them to the US and purchased a $163,000 house for them in the same Houston neighborhood as his parents; he pays $2,500 monthly in child support.

In 1999 he married Jean Muggli of North Dakota. Stories conflict as to whether they met at a 1996 book signing or at a Manhattan, New York spa. They have twin daughters Sophia and Isabella (born October 2004). They divorced acrimoniously in 2006. Jean Muggli made an accusation of Strahan videotaping her sister, beating Jean, and repeatedly cheating. In January 2007 Judge James B Cooney awarded Muggli $15 million in a divorce settlement in addition to $18,000 monthly child support. Muggli claimed and testified that their (at the time 20 month old) daughters did “like to be accessorized", and that “Isabella doesn't like to leave the house without a purse” as the justification for her $22,500 photoshoots, $27,000 clothing bills, and $1,700 in sign language classes. (Neither daughter is hearing impaired.) With this being more than half of his $22 million assets, Strahan appealed. In March 2007 divorce judge Cooney ordered the mansion to be auctioned and the sales money split evenly with Jean; the house is valued at $3.6 million.

In June 2011, Strahan filmed a commercial supporting legalizing same-sex marriage in New York.

Michael Strahan is now engaged to Nicole Murphy, Eddie Murphy's ex wife.

Philanthropy

In 2002 he had a multimillion dollar restoration and renovation of Georgian Heights, a home built in 1906 at 99 Lloyd Ave, a red brick house with a carriage house and greenhouse that he bought in 2000 for $1.3 million. Before moving in he allowed the Junior League Of Montclair Newark to use his house a model home for its Montclair Junior League show house charity fundraiser. From May 28–31 the League decorated the mansion, had a 'bare bones' party and a black-tie affair; they also held $25 tours to fund Junior League programs called Children At Risk and HomeCorp. Children At Risk aids children and families and HomeCorp is a housing agency that helps low income people achieve home ownership.

"Basically, we're redoing our house to let strangers walk through it for a month," Strahan said. "It's a month-long fundraiser. They'll come in and decorate, paint the walls. They'll hang the curtains, bring in furniture, light fixtures. None of it will be ours. When they're done, if we want something, we get it at cost."

In February 2008, Strahan and Giants teammate Justin Tuck teamed up with Nike to design their own exclusive pair of sneakers for ID studio in New York City. All proceeds of the sneakers were donated to Nike’s Let Me Play global campaign.

Following the 2007 arrest of Michael Vick on dogfighting charges, Strahan appeared in a televised public service announcement for PETA.