Michael Strahan put together a Hall of Fame run during his 15 seasons in the NFL.
The former defensive end played his entire career with the New York Giants, where he gained a reputation as a dominant pass rusher.
Strahan was a four-time first-team All-Pro who was also named Defensive Player of the Year in 2001.
Tied with TJ Watt, he holds the record for the most NFL single-season sacks, with 22.5.
Strahan’s biggest accomplishment, though, came in 2007, when he helped the Giants win Super Bowl XLII over the New England Patriots in his final season.
For all he achieved on the field, it’s no surprise that he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014.
But Strahan paid a price for his success.
The legendary defensive end has not been shy about showing what years of injuries have done to his fingers.
He went viral back in 2016 after he sat next to Lin-Manuel Miranda at a basketball game, who snapped a picture of his damaged digits.
“We sat next to Strahan. He is the best. Also, thanks to football, his fingers do this,” Miranda wrote, sharing an image of one of Strahan’s fingers pointing in the wrong direction.
The NFL legend has previously explained that his fingers used to get injured while trying to grab opposing players on the field, but he just played through the pain.
“All my fingers, they don’t really line up from getting bent out of shape,” he said.
“It’s all from grabbing people… the crazy thing is you don’t come out of a football game because of a finger.
“They would laugh at you. So you suck it up, you go to the sideline, they tape it together and you go and play again.”
As well as having damaged fingers, Strahan also admitted he ‘smashed all his fingernails’ between helmets on the odd occasion.
Clearly, his hands went through a lot.
But Strahan believes it was all worth it – for one moment in particular.
When asked for the favourite part of his career, the Giants legend didn’t name winning the Super Bowl, or setting NFL records.
Instead, he suggested it was putting Tom Brady on his back.
“You’ve never lived unless you’ve hit Tom Brady. Not just Brady but any quarterback,” Strahan said.
“Like, you hit a guy, hit a grown man, and you hear the life and the breath leave his body.
“There’s something very empowering about that. Then, you hit Brady, you sack him and you land on Brady. And you get up and you’re, like, ‘Boy, I see what Gisele (Bundchen) is feeling. You know, I just laid down with Tom Brady. That was cool.’”
Strahan’s comments about sacking Brady came in 2017, back when the former QB was still married to Bundchen.
The couple announced their divorce in October 2022.
During his 15-year career, Strahan registered an incredible 141.5 sacks – and the most memorable of those came against Brady in the third quarter of Super Bowl XLII.
He dragged the legendary QB down for a six-yard loss, helping the Giants build momentum before a fourth-quarter comeback.
