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In between bites of a hefty bacon cheeseburger,
Michael Strahan gulps a chocolate milk shake,
the house specialty of Holsten's Ice Cream Parlor, a
charming, unpretentious eatery in the middle of
Bloomfield.
The place feels like a set from Happy Days, a remnant
of time gone by. Built in 1939, the lunch counter on
the left is lined with swiveling bar stools topped in
red vinyl. To the right, a homemade candy counter
tickles the nostrils, and nestled in the back are the
booths where Strahan is sitting, sharing food
and insight in a relaxed atmosphere away from his
Giants Stadium confines.
How fitting: the Giants' throwback player loves
to frequent an old-time restaurant.
Strahan, in his ninth year as a Giants
defensive end, is playing so well right now that even
offensive teammate Tiki Barber marvels at his
"repertoire, which is unbelievable - the guy has
so many different talents." Reminding Giants fans
of the days of Lawrence Taylor, Strahan has 8
1/2 sacks in the past three games and is on pace to
break Mark Gastineau's single-season record of 22. He
is a menace to opposing quarterbacks and running backs
alike, continuing his evolution as one of the most
complete defensive players in football.
The Strahan behind the recognizable gap-toothed
smile makes the man what he is: one part
heart-stopping work ethic, a heavy dose of
prove-the-world-wrong, nobody-respects-me attitude,
and a generous sprinkling of open-mindedness gleaned
from living his formative years in Germany as part of
a large military family. The final ingredient is pure,
unabashed exuberance.
"I'm probably the most unlikely football player
there is," says Strahan, who swears he
didn't even know what a sack was until his first
season at Division I-AA Texas Southern. Eventually, as
he pored over the heaps of preseason magazines, he
realized it was the statistic that defined a defensive
lineman. So he went about collecting them in bunches,
and he is still piling on.
"To me he looks like he's having a ball playing
football right now," Giants coach Jim Fassel
says. "I never see the guy down."
Strahan is more than comfortable in his
6-foot-5, 275-pound skin. He could easily someday be
the football television version of Charles Barkley - a
pro athlete not afraid to voice an opinion. Strahan
says he loves Barkley "because he's honest, but
I'm not as controversial."
However, Strahan has found himself in the
middle of a few storms in the past. when he was
critical of Fassel's handling of some team issues and
also of his team's stagnant offense. But not anymore. Strahan
is a leader of a Giants team characterized as much by
its chemistry as by its talent, setting a tone of
teamwork that Fassel sees every time Strahan
pokes his head in a special teams practice huddle just
to give the guys a 'Let's go.'
"You don't expect somebody who is so popular and
such a great player to be so down to earth," says
rookie punter Rodney Williams. "If anyone has a
right to have an ego in here, it's going to be the
sack master. But he doesn't."
Strahan didn't start out as a teenage star. He
took the only scholarship offered him, a free ride to
Texas Southern that only materialized because he
accompanied a teammate from his Houston high school on
a recruiting trip. Strahan played just one
season of high school football, returning for a
four-month stint from Germany because his father Gene
believed he had the talent for college ball.
Gene knew what he saw. Strahan still holds
Texas Southern's career sack record with 41 1/2. That
included 19 as a senior, leading the Giants to choose
him with their second-round draft pick in 1993.
"For me, I appreciate this," Strahan
says. "Texas Southern was the best thing for me.
At a bigger school, I would have been swallowed up. It
helped me grow up."
Life at the small school was never amplified by the
charter flights and catered meals that coddle players
at big-time programs such as Florida State, Notre
Dame, or Texas. Strahan spent more than one
Thanksgiving and Christmas alone in his dorm room, his
family still in Germany. He rode the team bus all the
way from Houston to Central Florida, catching fitful
naps and eating on the run.
"We ate at Shoney's so much," Strahan
says, "that I will never eat there again in my
life."
But he still wears the same pair of shoes for so long
the team's equipment managers have to remind him to
take new ones. Strahan doesn't flaunt his
excesses. But then, growing up, he probably wore some
recycled items from his three older brothers. The last
of six children (two girls and four boys), Strahan
exhibits the type of confidence found often in the
youngest child. He laughs comfortably while sharing
embarrassing stories of sibling abuse, but doesn't
stop until you realize what he learned from the
experience.
"When I was 13 years old, I was a little
chubby," he says. "My brothers called me
Bob, which was short for 'booty on back.' They made
fun of me and it made me start working out. I was up
at 5:30 doing my Jane Fonda tapes. I just wanted to
improve myself. I wasn't even playing football yet.
"I bought the Herschel Walker workout book, too.
I did his pushups and his sit-ups. In fact, he came to
Germany to do a promotional tour for something else,
myself and my best friend went to Heidelberg to get an
autographed picture. I took pictures with him and
years later [in 1993 with the Giants], I'm playing
with the guy.
"I brought the pictures in, but he said they
couldn't be real because he wasn't that old."
Strahan is laughing, his eyes dancing the way
they do every time he tells a lively anecdote. One of
his favorites is about his high school experience in
Germany.
"I went to a private school which had just opened
up called Mannheim Christian Academy," he says.
"I graduated in a class of two, and I was not
valedictorian. I let Julie Johnson go, but I can
always say I finished in the top two in my
class."
Among Giants, however, he's remains at the top of the
class.
Kenny Holmes, who anchors the other corner of the
defensive line, only met Strahan this season
after signing a free agent contract from Tennessee. He
was stunned to find a completely different person from
the one he heard some people criticize.
"I always thought he didn't work hard, but it's
the total opposite," Holmes says. "He works
hard on and off the field, lifting weights and
studying film. He's totally prepared. I thought he was
a guy that rested on his laurels, thinking, 'I'm great
and don't have to work at it.' But he comes in before
practice and stays after. And he is a totally funny
guy - in the training room, the tub, anywhere - he's
still funny. It's in his personality."
Strahan admits that when he joined the Giants,
he wouldn't have been able to name many teammates on
offense since "it was something you just didn't
do."
Now, his locker sits alongside most of the offensive
lineman and he often stops by to chat with
third-string quarterback and (gasp) rookie Jesse
Palmer. His social life with teammates has expanded
beyond the boundaries that used to exist.
Take a recent Michael Jackson concert at Madison
Square Garden, where Strahan joined teammates
Barber and Greg Comella doing the moonwalk in the
aisles. He was singing along gleefully with the 80s
classic Thriller album and the 70s sounds of the
Jackson Five saying simply, "Come on, who doesn't
know those songs?"
He had fun again when he imitated Ricky Martin's
concert pose after scoring a game-winning touchdown
against the Eagles two years ago.
Unbeknownst to anyone but Barber and Comella, who had
joined Strahan at another Garden concert to
watch Martin shimmy and sing, Strahan copied
Martin's hip-swiveling move to the crowd at Veteran's
Stadium when he took Christian Peter's tipped ball
into the end zone in overtime.
"You know what? I was really quiet in
college," Strahan says. "When I got
here, I don't know what happened."
Surely a combination of things, including maturity and
the fulfilling life he enjoys with his wife Jean and
their three dogs - an Akita, a mutt, and an Old
English Mastiff. The couple saved two of their pets
from the streets and gave them a home.
It seems the only people Strahan doesn't treat
nicely are quarterbacks. If this football season
continues at its current pace, Strahan will be
more than just a good Giant. His will be a name that
stands alone, like Bruce Smith or LT. His familiar
smile will be billboard worthy, the signature face of
this current Giant group.
As the clock eases into late afternoon, Strahan
draws the final sip of his milk shake, resists the
urge to order a second, and swallows the last bite of
his burger. He is satisfied and smiling.
Lunch was good, but life is better.
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