Michael Strahan Retires, Press Conference Today at 11:30AM

Michael Strahan Retires:  DE Michael Strahan has decided to retire from the NFL.  Drafted in the second round of the 1993 NFL Draft, Strahan played his entire 15-year career with the New York Giants.

“Michael called me earlier this morning to tell me he had decided to retire,” said Giants’ President/CEO John Mara.  “I told him I was disappointed and that I knew he could still play at a very high level and we were hoping to have him back.  But I certainly understand his decision.  I told him he’s been a great Giant.  He thanked me for everything the organization has done for him.  I said, ‘I think you’ve done more for us than we can ever do for you.’”

“It was important that my teammates knew which way I was going before they got on the field (at the June 11-13 mini-camp) to start the work to defend our title,” said Strahan.  “It’s time.  I’m done.”

“It’s a tough decision but I wanted to be fair to the Giants and fair to my teammates,” said Strahan.

“New York is the greatest city in the world (and) along with it being the greatest come expectations of greatness that don’t allow for mediocrity to exist,” said Strahan.  “I feel like if I cannot live up to those expectations, it’s time for me to retire.  Right now I just don’t feel like I have it in me to perform in the elite fashion that my fans have grown accustomed to and in the only way I know how.”

“I told him, ‘If you’re not feeling it by minicamp, maybe it’s time to call it a day,'” said Strahan’s agent.  “Then he called (Sunday) night and said, ‘Guess what? It’s almost minicamp, and I’m not feeling it.'”

Strahan’s official retirement press conference will be today at 11:30AM.

Strahan leaves the Giants with the NFL’s single-season sack record (22.5), the franchise records for games played (216 regular season games) and careers sacks (141.5 – unofficially tied with Lawrence Taylor), a “Defensive Player of the Year” award (2001), seven Pro Bowl appearances, and a Super Bowl ring.

“I think everybody made it pretty clear to him we wanted him back,” said Mara.  “I don’t see what else we could have done.  I think he felt it was the right time, he was going out on the highest possible note, he’s healthy and has accomplished everything he can.  And I don’t think he was looking forward to training camp.”

“I’m happy for him, in a lot of ways,” said General Manager Jerry Reese.  “He’s going out on top, which every athlete dreams of doing.  He’s one of the all-time greats, and we’ll miss him…Selfishly, I was hoping he would give it one more shot.”

“He’s the best play-the-run pass rusher I ever saw,” said former Giants’ General Manager Ernie Accorsi.  “Now I’ve seen defensive ends that could play the run, but they’re not great pass rushers.  Michael was the best I’ve ever seen for a pass rusher, who thought pass rush and sacks, to stop the run.  I’m lucky enough – by happenstance, I’m not taking any credit for it – to have been around six Hall of Famers in my career. I’m convinced he will be a seventh.”

“Some guys are good speed-rushers, and some guys are good bull-rushers,” said former Giants’ Head Coach Jim Fassel.  “Michael was both.  He just wasn’t good at both, he was great. I’ve never seen anyone great at both other than Michael.”

“He will be missed,” said QB Eli Manning.  “He is a tremendous leader of this team.  He has a great attitude, great work ethic, has taught a lot of young players coming in how you are supposed to act as a football player, how you are supposed to prepare and play the game, and he has been a great role model for a lot of players on this team.  He will always be associated with the New York Giants and he has been a great leader, a great player, a role model for all the guys in learning how to play the game and how to prepare yourself, and he has been great for me since I have been here in watching him and the way he conducts himself on and off the field and the way he prepares each week.  He will be missed as a leader of this team.”

“I guess I am just going to have wishful thinking that hopefully he is going to come back,” said WR Amani Toomer, who now becomes the longest-tenured Giants player.  “I know there are a lot of tackles in the league that are getting excited right now, but I have to see it to believe it.  You hear a lot of things in the papers and you and I both know that it is not always true, but I don’t know.  This is a very personal decision and whatever he does I am going to be 100 percent behind him.  He has had a great career and he really doesn’t have much more to prove, but I always tell him,  ‘You have to defend it, you can’t just go out on top.  You can’t be the guy who takes his ball and goes home when he is winning after a couple games of one-on-one in basketball.’”

“It is a sad day, a very, very sad day for me personally because I love that guy,” said DE Osi Umenyiora.  “He is like a brother to me.  He has put in 15 strong years in the NFL and that is something that in this day and age is damn near impossible to do, so he had a strong career.  I am happy for him.  He has a lot of opportunities off the field.  He is probably the best Giant ever in my opinion so I am happy for him, but I am sad for myself.  I am surprised, because with the way he was playing and the way he was producing I thought at least he would give it another year or two.  But he retired at the top of his game.  A lot of us don’t get the opportunity to do that, so I am happy for him.”

“He basically taught every defensive end in this locker room how to play NFL football as far as how he uses his hands, how he protects himself on certain plays in games, how he prepares for games, just about how to go about your business as a professional in this league – he has taught us all that,” said DE Justin Tuck.  “Obviously, this guy is going to be missed.  He is a great teammate, the leader of this football team, the spokesman of this football team, so it just means a lot of people are going to have the opportunity to step up.”

“He was probably one of the main reasons we didn’t look like it was our first Super Bowl,” said LB Antonio Pierce.  “The guy kept us at ease.  The whole Super Bowl, that’s the one thing I’ll remember about him…he kept everybody poised and calm.  We never got too antsy or too excited because of him.  He just has that characteristic about himself that puts a lot of things at ease and makes an uneasy situation very comfortable.”

“What I’ll remember most about Michael is what he did in the last game of his career,” said Mara.  “He stood on the bench after the Patriots had taken the lead, and he told our offensive linemen that 17-14 would be the final score, and that if they believed it, it would happen.  That typifies what his leadership meant to our team.”

“It was the perfect time for Michael to retire,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin.

Article on DE Michael Strahan:  Going Out a Champion by Peter King of SportsIllustrated.com

Notes and Quotes:  According to The Daily News, Strahan’s retirement will create an additional $4 million in room under the 2008 NFL salary cap.  Strahan’s 2008 cap figure would supposedly have been $6.5 million, but $2.5 million of that will be “dead money” (i.e., bonuses that do not come off of the books).

DE Justin Tuck on if LB Mathias Kiwanuka will now move back to defensive end with the retirement of Strahan:  “I hope he does.  That, again, gives you that three-headed monster and as we all noticed last year that is very effective.  I am trying to invite Kiwi over to the house to eat some more lasagna so he can put a few pounds on.”

Kiwanuka on possibly moving back to defensive end:  “I’ve been though the whole ‘What position am I going to play?’ thing.  The only way I can approach it is to wait until I hear something.  Right now, I’m a linebacker and that’s the way I’m going to approach practice in this mini-camp.”