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Beyond the great Lawrence Taylor, Michael Strahan is arguably the second best defender in New York Giants history.
And now, he is set to be honored as one, as the Giants will retire Strahan’s No. 92 this season, according to Tom Rock of Newsday, making sure that no other player will ever wear his jersey number with the franchise.
Although the Giants have yet to announce the exact date of when they will retire his number, Strahan and Eli Manning will become the 13th and 14th players in team history to have their numbers retired.
Back in June, the Giants also announced that they would be retiring Manning’s No. 10, while inducting him into the Ring of Honor. And rightfully so, Strahan will be joining him this season.
The Giants have not retired a number since pulling Hall of Famer Frank Gifford’s No. 16 from their available jersey list back in 2000.
Strahan helped the Giants capture Super Bowl XLII back in February 2008, and afterwards, called it quits on his career after 15 seasons in the NFL, which were all spent in East Rutherford.
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Record Holder
While Taylor might be the best player to ever wear a Giants’ uniform, Strahan is the team’s all-time sack leader with 141.5 from 1993-2007.
He also holds the NFL’s single-season sack record with 22.5, coming back in 2001. Since setting this record, very few pass rushers have come close to breaking it. Jared Allen (2011) and Justin Houston (2014) were the closest with 22 sacks in two separate seasons in the 2010’s.
And for those who are unfamiliar with Strahan’s astounding 2001 campaign, the sack that broke the record comes along with a bit of controversy. After recording 3.5 sacks in Week 16, Strahan entered the final game of the season with one more left to go in order to break the NFL record.
The Giants were playing the Green Bay Packers in this contest, and the opposing quarterback happened to be Strahan’s good friend and now fellow Hall of Famer Brett Favre. During this game, Favre rolled right on a play action pass, and slid down in front of Strahan in the backfield to help him achieve his milestone.
And while Strahan would have easily wrapped up Favre, given the fact that he had already burst into the backfield, it almost looked like a designed play.
Alas, the record still stands to this day 20 years later. Strahan has the most sacks in a single-season in NFL history with 22.5. And no one has been able to break it in two decades thus far.
An All-Time Great
In addition to both his franchise and NFL sack records, Strahan produced one of the best careers in Giants’ history.
Lining up at defensive end, Strahan was named a First-Team All-Pro four times, a Second-Team All-Pro twice and was a seven time Pro Bowler. He recorded double digit sacks in six out of 15 seasons, and led the league in sacks twice. He also led the NFL in tackles for a loss in three separate years as well (2001, 2003, 2005).
As previously mentioned, Strahan helped the Giants snap their 17 year drought without a Super Bowl title back in 2007, when they miraculously knocked off Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the undefeated New England Patriots.
Strahan initially planned on retiring after the 2006 season, but he ultimately made the right decision to come back for another year and it paid off in a big way.
Seven years after his retirement, Strahan was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014. Now, the Giants will make sure that no player in franchise history ever wears his number again.
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