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On Verge of Record, Strahan Still Awed by L.T.
All Pro defensive end set to surpass Taylor on career sack list.
By Michael Eisen, Giants.com

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October 27, 2006

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -Just like his entire rookie season, Michael Strahan's first sack was not exactly a harbinger of things to come.

"(I remember) that I got it the last play before half and I got up celebrating, thinking that the crowd was cheering for me," Strahan said this week. 'They were cheering because it was halftime."

The sack was the only solo tackle he made in his nine-game rookie season.

Let's just say Strahan has picked up the pace since then. A seven-time Pro Bowler, Strahan enters Sunday's home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 132.5 career sacks. That ties him for eighth place on the NFL's career list.

More significantly to Strahan, he is deadlocked with Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor for the highest sack total in Giants history. Tampa Bay's rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski should beware: Strahan will stand alone with his next half or full sack.

Had somebody suggested 13 years ago that he would be sharing the record with Taylor, Strahan would have been incredulous.

"Without a doubt, I wouldn't have believed it," he said. "I can barely believe it now. I don't know man, I'm just kind of along for the ride. We'll see. I'm just hanging in there and these years seem to add up and things just seem to happen. You look back and you think, 'Why in the heck do I deserve to be here and do some of these things?' At this point, I don't even question it. I just put on my pads and do what I've got to do."

Even when his name is alone at the top of the list, Strahan will still consider Taylor to be the head of the class.

"L.T. is still the greatest," Strahan said. "There will never be another L.T. I don't care what I do, I can never replace anybody like that. I'm just lucky enough to be here long enough to be where I'm at."

The careers of the two great sack artists in Giants history intersected for one year. The 1993 season was Taylor's last and Strahan's first. Taylor started 15 games, had 36 tackles (29 solo), six sacks, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Strahan played a very reserve role and contributed his one sack.

"He was very intimidating, Lawrence Taylor," Strahan said. "You read and you heard all the things about him, so naturally it was like, okay stay clear. As a rookie you don't really say much. You sit back and you shut up and you speak when you're spoken to. He just had a way to look at you and it would scare you half to death. You just knew who he was, so that was intimidating enough.

"When I say intimidated or scared it just meant that I was a rookie. Most of these rookies that come in here now, they don't go over to Tiki (Barber) and sit at Tiki's locker and talk to him. So you're just intimidated, because he was somebody I saw on T.V. I was scared of Phil Simms, too. Anybody in this locker room, I was afraid of everybody.  Because these are the guys I saw on T.V. You just heard so much about them that you were intimidated, just naturally. But (Taylor) was great to me. He'd do anything for you, he'd give you the shirt off his back. He took us out to dinner plenty of times, signed anything you wanted him to sign. He was good to be around. He taught you a lot about the game of football - how to play, how to practice, all those things. So I can't say there wasn't a kind word. He wasn't mean to us at all."

Strahan and Taylor are now friends who occasionally play golf together. Strahan still reveres his former teammate. When he set the NFL single-season sack record with 22.5 in 2001, Strahan said he felt great pride in breaking Taylor's team record of 20.5, set in 1986.

"If I hadn't played with him, I don't think I would really know much about him," Strahan said. "But because I played with him and was always a big fan growing up, I realize what he's done. How he changed the game with the way he played, it's amazing. Like I said, there'll never be another L.T. It's been a long ride. I thought I wanted to play maybe two or three years if I could squeeze them in, if they didn't cut me first. So to be here long enough to do that is a blessing."

Strahan said he hasn't talked to Taylor this week, but will soon reach out to him.

"Trust me, I'm going to call him," Strahan said. "I'm going to be like, 'Hey, I don't care what the numbers say.  It means nothing, because you know you're the greatest.' And that's the truth. My feeling is that it really doesn't bother him. I think he's generally happy and proud of me. I know he's said that in the past and I appreciate all of that. I don't think there's any kind of animosity, but I will apologize."

Strahan tied Taylor by sacking Drew Bledose twice in Dallas Monday night. Those two plus Leslie O'Neal are now eighth on the NFL's sack list. Next up is John Randle at 136.5 and Richard Dent at 137.5.

Strahan will go up against Tampa Bay rookie offensive tackle Jeremy Trueblood and chase a rookie quarterback in Gradkowski. But he still could have difficult time sliding past Taylor. Because the Giants' other Pro Bowl end, Osi Umenyiora (who leads the team with five sacks), is not expected to play and LaVar Arrington is out with a torn Achilles tendon, the Buccaneers can focus their attention - and extra blockers - at Strahan. Umenyiora is expected to be replaced by first-round draft choice Mathias Kiwanuka.

"I know that Kiwanuka is a good player," Strahan said. "He may be young, but he just looks comfortable out there, kind of like Barry (Cofield, the Giants' rookie defensive tackle). Once they're in the game they just look like they belong there and they play that way. It'll be exciting to have them out there, but yeah, we're going to miss Osi."

Strahan, of course, has confronted multiple blockers for years. A few extra bodies won't slow him down. And after two straight road games, he has extra incentive to secure the record on Sunday.

"Doing it in front of the fans, that would be special," Strahan said. "There's no guarantee that it's going to happen, but it would be great to do it at home, in front of the fans and because I appreciate them for all these years. Up and down and however we've been as a team, however I've been personally, they've always been there and they've cheered. And they appreciated it. I appreciate them, and I would just love to do that in front of them."

NOTES
 The Giants are wary of falling into a trap on Sunday. After defeating two teams with winning records on the road in Atlanta and Dallas, they come home to face a 2-4 Tampa Bay squad that plays a green quarterback and is ranked 29th in the NFL in total offense.

In a similar situation last year, the Giants played poorly and lost to a Minnesota Vikings team that entered the game at 3-5.

"We've been through those circumstances as a team and realize how detrimental they can be to a season," Tiki Barber said. "Also, I think we got our bad play out of us for the year. We started this year with a lethargic, slow-moving pace that caused us to get down early and struggle. But the last few weeks we've played with a sense of urgency and put together some pretty complete games, which is nice to see.

"So I don't think it's a trap game. If you pay attention to Tampa, you can see very easily that they could be 4-2. They lost to the Saints on a punt return at the end of the game and to the Carolina Panthers on a field goal at the very end of the game. They've played very close games, they just have been on the opposite side of luck. They are a good team. We can't begin to think their record is indicative of their talent."

Quarterback Eli Manning said, "We know we can't relax for a second. We have to continue to get better every week. We know this is a tough game for us, and just because it's a home game doesn't make it any easier. It's good to be at home. But we have to come out and play good football to win this game."

 Five Giants did not participate in the team portion of practice on Friday: cornerback Sam Madison (hamstring), wide receiver Sinorice Moss (quad), linebacker Brandon Short (knee) and defensive ends Justin Tuck (foot) and Osi Umenyiora (hip flexor strain). Moss will not play Sunday and Short, taking his normal day of rest to ease the burden on his surgically-repaired knee, is probable. Madison, Tuck and Umenyiora remain questionable, as does cornerback Frank Walker (hamstring) and running back Derrick Ward (foot). Safety Jason Bell (concussion) and linebacker Carlos Emmons (pec strain) were upgraded to questionable. Wide receiver Plaxio Burress (heel) is also probable.

 The game-time weather is expected to be sunny and very windy. Few stadiums provide the tricky breezes and high gusts that Giants Stadium does.

"Both teams will have to play in it," said coach Tom Coughlin, who had the team pratice outside in windy conditions the last two days. "But the thing that happened is that we got probably twice the wind in the last couple of days as we've had all year long. In other words, eight, nine miles an hour, has been the most we've had. (We can expect) 17, gusts of 20 and wind-chills well below what it is today, which is beautiful. We play in the north.  It's coming - you know it's coming.

"We've had an opportunity to get out there and work in it a little bit and I mean everybody has benefited by it. The special teams have benefited, the quarterback turned into it and with it behind him - all of that stuff.  Punting into it, punting with it, snapping with it."