Michael Strahan - One of a Kind

Well, he finally did it. Michael Strahan retired after 15 long years of football. And he will be missed. Not only was he the best defensive end on the Giants team (and arguably the NFL) but he was the easiest to talk to (most times) and everybody liked him (well, just about). And he stopped the run too. He was truly one of a kind.

Throughout the Giants triumphant playoff run and Super Bowl, it seemed as if there were a lot of heroes. And there certainly were. Eli, Steve Smith, Amani Toomer, all those rookies.....but there was always Strahan. He always got a lot of attention. And he deserved it.

What do most people remember about him? First and foremost, unfortunately I think, is the gap-toothed smile, that gap-toothed smile that became his trademark. And, who knows, given his overall effect on the Giants football team, maybe it was one of his greatest assets.

I’ll bet it helped him be a leader. It made him approachable. Instead of the dour expression you might expect from a man who mixed it up with the biggest, meanest people on the planet, Michael would sport that gap-toothed grin. And all would seem right with the world.

That’s what the Giants will miss most - his leadership. How many people can be elected captain of a team when he’s not even there? Well, that’s what happened with the Giants last year. At the time, I viewed it as an enormous negative. What kind of mixed-up priorities did this team have?

But it turned out to be a harbinger of good things to come. The Giants were saying, “HE’S OUR LEADER” loud and clear. Not Eli, not Coughlin, not Amani. It’s Michael Strahan and we don’t care that he’s not here. Who knows? Maybe that’s what ultimately brought him back for that one last triumphant run to glory.

In preparation for this column, I looked at Strahan’s career stats, and, while laudable, primarily for their consistency, stats don’t tell his story. Stats are a more reliable indicator for a quarterback. But for a defensive end, who can be double-teamed or even triple-teamed, you would have to examine the performance of every other defensive lineman and linebacker to really gauge his overall significance.

There was one best way of gauging his importance. You just had to watch him. He had one of those classic defensive end bodies. Listed at 6’5” and 255, it’s hard to believe he carried that much bulk. He was always so fast. And quick. (There is a big difference there)..And he played with abandon.

All the great defensive linemen had speed and quickness. And power, of course. But the primary asset is speed. You can make a guy powerful, and you can even improve a guy’s speed and quickness through training, but the gift from God is really the natural speed.

Strahan always had it. In fact, sometimes I thought he tried to rely on his speed too much. There were too many games when I thought he’d just run himself out of a play, the offensive lineman would just ride him out behind the quarterback.

But, more often than not, in moments that counted, Strahan would make a play. He’d do what he had to do. And Strahan could do it all, run like a deer, stop on a dime, change directions in a heartbeat, bull his way through a block or even jump bodies to make the play.

But he was smart too. He’d study his opponent. He’d understand the defensive scheme. And certainly for the latter days of his career, in those last several years, he became a leader, and then he became THE leader.

In fact, the best indicator of his prowess on the field was what happened to the Giants when he wasn’t on the field. The best example was the 2006 season. The Giants couldn’t stop anybody. That they finished a .500 team and made the playoffs by a hair was remarkable. But, even that accomplishment may have been out of reach if not for the exhortations of Strahan.

Read Michael’s book. And then read a book called “The G.M.”. The two, taken together, give you a good idea of the power of Strahan. He endured the pain. He made Tiki a better person. He made Coughlin a better coach. I think he even made some reporters better reporters.

Just as his opponents on the line couldn’t know what to expect from Strahan, whether he would run around them, or bull through them, or whirl like a dervish, so did his personality consist of several quite different elements, some that could scare you but others that could charm.

When Strahan was going through that ugly divorce, it was easy to turn against him. You’d read some ugly things, and you’d wonder. But could any of us endure a microscopic examination of his life and emerge unsullied?

Well, Strahan is nothing if not resilient. He endured that experience just as he endured the pain of every Sunday, or the relentless questioning of those reporters. He’s just a tough guy. And maybe that’s what we should remember the most.

Not just fast or strong, but tough too. And enduring. Following his rookie year, he played 15 or more games in every year but two. In those years he played just 8 games in 2004 and 9 games in 2006. He was always tough and he was always there. If he could walk, he’d be in there.

I’ve already heard that some people think he is a big phony. That stems, I’m sure, from the times you’d see a different person from the one you thought you knew. But Strahan really is a complex individual, and I think people were just seeing the many sides of Michael.

The capacity to laugh and enjoy, but also the capacity to be very tough. All the great ones had it, certainly Ali, Marciano or even Howie Long.

And Michael Strahan too.

Cold Hands, Hot Foot

What was Sunday's Giants victory over the Green Bay Packers really about? To me, after watching the tape, it was all about many cold hands and one foot. Whose hands? Well, Plaxico Burress's were in evidence all night. There was also, of course, Amani Toomer. And the hands that didn't LOSE a fumble all night, and, actually, for three games now, those of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw. There were also the hands of Eli Manning, using one glove only, throwing lots of completions right on the button. There were illegal hands to the face too, but more than any others, today I would like to pay tribute to the hands of TE Kevin Boss and special teamer Domenick Hixon. Boss recovered Jacobs's fumble at the goal line. Hixon recovered still another R.W. McQuarters fumble amongst several furiously groping men in green.

The foot, of course, belonged to Lawrence Tynes, who, after failing to put the ball through the uprights on two previous occasions, finally solidly kicked the hell out of that last kick, putting out of his mind the things that went before, like a bad snap, like a scolding from his coach. That singlemindedness put the Giants back into the Super Bowl. It also solidified his career, I'm sure, but that's quite beside the point.

Was there ever a game that was more fun to watch? The lead changed hands seemingly all night long before finally evening up at 20 with almost the entire fourth quarter (and ultimately overtime) to go. The Giants dominated, it seemed, all night long, time of possession, yards on the ground, yards in the air, receptions, quarterback pressures, yet here they were, tied with a team that still, after all, boasted the world's finest quarterback and about five dangerous receivers.

But the "hands of the night" award was fated to go to arguably the MVP of the Giants post-season run, namely cornerback Cory Webster, who snagged Favre's errant pass to his favorite receiver, Donald Driver, and streaked down the sideline, setting up the G-Men for that last miracle kick. I don't say "miracle" lightly either. It was in zero-degree weather, the man missed two shorter kicks earlier and he had to listen to some vitriol from Coughlin on at least one of them.

All was forgiven in the aftermath of the victory, of course. Coughlin joked that they just had to move the ball back a little farther. Also forgiven in those joyous post-game moments, I'm sure, were the R.W. McQuarters two fumbles and Sam Madison's impossibly poorly-timed unsportsmanlike penalty that killed still another Giants drive.

What's abundantly clear after these three playoff wins is that this really is a team. You can't pick one player on whom to focus. The quarterback, of course, gets most of the credit, but what's new? And who's more deserving? Eli had been the whipping boy all year for talk-radio, especially one mean-spirited cretin who can't pronounce most English words over one syllable, for former Giants running backs, for TV pitchmen disguised as football analysts....for most of the NY print-media. He's certainly answered all his detractors, controlling the game, setting a selfless example, and showing the same coolness in the pocket that so annoys all of those pickers of bones. Where was Eli to be found, directly after the game? Looking for someone in the stands, concern written all over his face. It's easy to play for a guy like Eli.

But, even given Eli's performance, what about the coaching staff, in fact, the entire management team ! There is a GM who seemingly picked all the right players, a head coach who has his team ready to play each week, an offensive coordinator choosing all the right plays, a defensive coordinator who no quarterback can quite figure out, and owners who just keep smiling.

And what about these new players? Tight end Kevin Boss, in addition to recovering that critical fumble on Sunday, has been a huge 6'7" presence, he gets open, and he catches everything coming his way. Ahmad Bradshaw missed eleven games and came back running hard and fast. Steve Smith, the wide receiver, has been a magnificent third option behind Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer. Justin Tuck stops the run and pass. Even players we never heard of like that cornerback Pope have stepped in without missing a beat. Domenick Hixon, Madison Hedgecock, the list goes on and on.

The veterans have performed as well as, if not better than, ever. Michael Strahan, Burress and Toomer, the entire offensive line, the leader of the defense, Antonio Pierce, who made a miraculous game-saving stop on a screen pass in Sunday’s game, wrapping up the running back and his blocker until help could arrive. The veteran offensive line has stood up to the rigors of the Patriots, Bucs, Cowboys and now Packers. Feagles, the punter, is a marvel at 41 years of age. And of course there’s Tynes.

If I were the Patriots, I’d be a little nervous. For, as perfect as they have been, for eighteen games now, can they continue that perfection for another game against a team that’s only been perfect for four? Even though the Pats beat the Giants in that last game of the season, they only won barely, and that on a rather unfortuitous quirk of fate, a blown coverage after an injury to a cornerback.

And the Giants are now a curious mirror of the Pats. There is balance everywhere, an offense with two good running backs, a strong offensive line, and a bevy of receivers. There is a defense with a gunslinger mentality, a reflection of its new leader. Its special teams have truly been special down the stretch. But, most of all, they play as a team, they win as a team. Sound familiar?