Sports announcer Jay Glazier said Michael Strahan was the best defensive end in the game because “he was nastier, he was tougher and he was more resilient than anybody else.”
On Sunday, though, Strahan left his nasty side in the past. The football player-turned-TV host was all smiles when enshrined in the National Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
In his acceptance speech, Strahan, a seven-time Pro-Bowler and Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants, described himself as an “improbable football player” and “an absolutely improbable Hall of Famer.”
He credited his father with helping him overcome all this improbability.
Strahan told the crowd his journey to the NFL began on a military base in Mannheim, Germany, where his father, a colonel stationed there with the 82nd Airborne, would take him running in the woods and lifting in the gym.
“He is the most amazing man,” Strahan said, “and one hell of a father.”
A fierce competitor on the field, Strahan revealed another soft spot, boasting to the crowd, “I have the sweetest mama you could ask for.”
He told of how his parents sent him stateside during high school to play football, a sport he never even had watched. After a single season and with his parents’ encouragement, Strahan earned a scholarship to Texas Southern University.
From there, he went on to frustrate offenses and terrify quarterbacks for 15 seasons with the New York Giants. He racked up a 141.5 sacks, the fifth most in NFL history, and 22.5 in one season—a league record.
Reflecting on the whole of his career at the end of his remarks, Strahan explained, “Improbability means nothing, because absolutely anything is possible.”
