Going out a champion: Strahan leaves game he loved at the top

Michael Strahan's outgoing personality will make him a television star in his next career. Bob Rosato/SI Peter King's Mailbag Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

For a man born into a military family and schooled in Germany and Texas, it's hard to imagine an athlete more suited to the bright lights of New York -- in all ways on and off the field -- as Michael Strahan was.

Strahan, a 15-year Giants veteran, retired at 36 on Monday, and the Giants called a news conference for Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. to make it official. He retires with a Giant-record 141.5 sacks and sack titles in 2001 and 2003. Lawrence Taylor had 132.5 official sacks, though if you count the 9.5 he had as a rookie, the year before sacks became an official stat, Taylor edges Strahan by half a sack, 142-141.5.

Not that the sacks numbers were a consideration for Strahan as he pondered his future this offseason. He could retire in peace after winning the first Super Bowl title in his career and one of the most unlikely championship wins in history, the February shocker of the Giants beating New England -- a game, privately, that Strahan sometimes still can't believe his team won. He hung on for one last chance after good friend Tiki Barber retired the previous year, and his patience paid off.

"It's just time,'' he told a friend with the Giants this morning. "I'm really happy. I've given this so much thought, and it was just the right time.''

I've known Strahan over the years, in three ways. We were neighbors in our New Jersey town for about 10 years, until he moved recently after a nasty divorce. He was a star for the Giants, and I wrote a couple of fairly long stories about him. And he was the best after-dinner speaker I've ever worked with; he's done maybe 30 or 35 Sports Illustrated events over the years, a few with me as the MC.

Last things first. I'll never forget the time we were together in a ballroom the morning of the Super Bowl a few years ago. He and Donovan McNabb were the guest speakers in front of a group of SI advertisers, with me there to prod them with questions. Understand that Strahan was as quick on his feet as Bob Costas -- and that is not even a small exaggeration -- and you'll know that working with him meant you had to be on your toes.

Well, as I launched into my spiel about the game, Strahan slowly began to take things over. After five or 10 minutes, he and McNabb didn't even need me to run the show, and I said, "I think I'm just going to sit down and let you handle things, Michael. I'm not needed here.'' I sat down. He ran with it most of the rest of the way.

"The reason he was always so good at events,'' said Christine Rosa, the SI executive director of Event Marketing and Athlete Relations, "is that it didn't matter if it was a crowd of 500 or a group of 10 people just standing around with him. He gave you the warm feeling of the guy on the couch sitting next to you watching the game. He's totally charismatic.''

That is why in his next life -- presumably as an NFL analyst for one of the big networks, probably FOX -- he'll have as much trouble fitting in as he did when he walked into a banquet in Manhattan. He might not own the room when he walks in, but give him 15 minutes. He'll fit perfectly.

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Strahan always thought the sack was overrated, though he embraced the sack the year he broke the record -- with an asterisk, which I'll get to -- in 2001. The thing he never got enough credit for is how he held the point against the run. Most sack guys are one-way players. Get to the quarterback, and if the running backs gets a 23-yard gain through your hole in the process, well, that's the linebacker's fault. Not Strahan.

"Some guys are good speed-rushers, and some guys are good bull-rushers,'' said Jim Fassel, Strahan's coach for seven mid-career years. "Michael was both. He just wasn't good at both, he was great. I've never seen anyone great at both other than Michael.''

"The thing I appreciated about Strahan was how he played the game the right way,'' said his arch-rival for the past eight seasons in Philadelphia, right tackle Jon Runyan. "Lots of defensive ends just try to run around you. He could bull-rush you and speed-rush you just as well. There's not a lot of guys who could get their hands on you high [at the shoulder pads] and then run over you. Not a lot of guys at that position want to play you that way, but Michael did.''