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Michael Strahan is considered one of the greatest defensive ends in the history of the NFL, and for good reason.
After spending one and a half decades with the New York Giants, he went to two Super Bowls (winning XLII in one of the biggest sports upsets ever before retiring). He was a six-time All-Pro, seven-time Pro Bowler, and the 2001 Defensive Player of the Year, and he holds the joint record for most sacks in a single season (22.5).
However, that almost never happened. Speaking to former opponent Tom Brady on the Let's Go podcast, Strahan said that the divisional rival Dallas Cowboys, then coached by fellow future Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson, almost beat the Giants for his services back in 1993, when he was still fresh from college:
"Jimmy promised he was going to draft me to the Cowboys... I met Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin and all these guys and he's like, 'Draft day deals. We're gonna draft him in the first round, but we want to do a draft day deal. We don't want any holdout.'"
But on Draft day, something happened that ultimately sent him to Big Blue instead:
"Sitting in my uncle's living room, eating our food with a briefcase - I'm like, 'My contract is in that briefcase. I'm going to be a Cowboy.' Then he gets a call, and they trade down the pick. And I say to Jimmy, 'You lied. You promised me.' He said, 'Well you know I thought you were gonna drop and I can get you a lot lower, plus I didn't know you were gonna be any good.'"
Michael Strahan discusses post-football media career
In the same podcast appearance, Michael Strahan expounded on his transition to media hosting after retiring from football.
Just days after he hung up his cleats, he joined Fox as a desk analyst for its Sunday coverage (interestingly enough, beside Jimmy Johnson). However, he earned a massive break in 2010, when ABC hired him as a guest host of Live! with Regis and Kelly, which would turn into a full-time gig in 2012.
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He lasted for over three and a half years before becoming one of the full-time hosts of the morning variety show Good Morning America.
Reflecting on his media career so far, Strahan called his current Fox analyst gig the best thing going on in his life:
"We get to to talk about something we love. We get to watch football games. I'm gonna watch them anyway, so why not watch with my buddies and get paid for it?"
But his other primary TV gig is something entirely different, a "masterclass in television," as he put it:
"...GMA is great. I love doing GMA... Like, I'm sitting next to (co-hosts) Robin (Roberts) and George (Stephanopoulos), and I'm watching how they use their strengths... I pay attention to why they've been able to do it for so long, why they've been able to connect, and try to use that to help myself as much as I can."
He also currently hosts The $100,000 Pyramid, which also airs on ABC, and is an executive producer of the game show.
