Dedication pays off for Giants' Strahan

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Once upon a time the man who would become a most feared pass rusher in the National Football League was but a neighborhood punch line.

The defensive end who would set the NFL single-season record for quarterback sacks this season was the, well, butt of jokes.

"My brothers, the other kids when I was growing up, they all used to make fun of me because of my fat butt," Michael Strahan recalls.

"They were always calling be 'Bob.' You know — Booty on Back. I wasn't really too huge of a kid, I just had a fat butt," Strahan says with what has become his trademark grin.

What the mainstay of the New York Giants' defense did about it was less amusing to quarterbacks, none of whom would dare call the 6-foot-5, 275-pounder "Bob" to his face mask in Saturday's Pro Bowl.

"I decided right then, when I was 12 or 13, that I was going to lose some weight," Strahan said.

So, he joined his father, then an Army officer at Fort Bragg, N. C., in rigorous morning physical training with the 82nd Airborne.

"I'd go with them on 5 a.m. runs. Whatever they did, I tried to keep up," Strahan said.

When his father, Gene, who boxed for the Army, once beating a Marine heavyweight named Ken Norton, would go to the gym for workouts, Michael would tag along and train there, too.

"The other (three) boys would come sometimes," Gene said, "but Michael was the only one who stuck with it. He really dedicated himself to it."

When his father was transferred to Germany, where he would lead three-mile runs into the woods, Strahan would join in.

"At first it was just to lose some weight and then to put on some muscle, but it became a part of me," Strahan said. "You have a little success, put on a little muscle, you want some more. By the time I went to college (Texas Southern) I just kept going. I already had my own workout regimen. I didn't have to have anybody to pace me or push me.

"When the other kids would go home over Thanksgiving or Christmas and my parents were in Germany, which was too far for me to go, I'd stay at my dorm and work out on my own. I'd run up hills, ride a bike up hills. I'd always be thinking about how it would give me better endurance, make me stronger or make me quicker. My father used to tell me, 'you don't get anything without paying the price for it,' and he was right."

Even these days, having made it as the NFL Defensive Player of the Year and a four-time Pro Bowler, Strahan hardly lets up. "After practice is finished I still go do extra work. Even when I'm here, which is basically a week to relax, I'll usually go do something," Strahan said. "I always feel like I have to do a little more, a little extra."

"Everything he's gotten; everything he's achieved in his career, he's worked for and all the success he has had he has paid a price for," Gene said.

And what do his brothers call him these days. "They usually call me when they need something. They call me 'Little Brother' — but they say it nicely."