NFL

Strahan on the cusp of scoring his Hall-of-Fame nod

When Jim Fassel was the offensive coordinator for the Cardinals, he had to figure out a way to block Michael Strahan not once, but twice a season. This was a young Strahan, not yet a finished product, and yet Fassel often found himself stumped.

“I had my eyes on him,’’ Fassel told The Post from Las Vegas. “We put in some things to try to neutralize him and that’s the highest accolade you can give a guy: ‘I got to game-plan against him.’ ’’

Fassel was hired in 1997 as head coach of the Giants and for the next seven years had all those Strahan sacks and tackles on his side. It was under Fassel that Strahan blossomed into one of the NFL’s premier defensive ends, combining production with high-performance to emerge, for the second straight year, as one of the 17 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Class of 2014 will be revealed Saturday night.

“The guy should have gotten in last year,’’ Fassel said.

Strahan made it to the cut to 10 a year ago, but was not among the five players inducted into the 2013 class enshrined in Canton. He’s up for it again and the buzz around the selection process is he has a strong chance this time around, which would be fitting, with Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium — adjacent to where Giants Stadium stood and Strahan starred.

“This is how I look at it,’’ Strahan said. “Football was a great part of my life, and I am so grateful for everything. I lasted 15 years. I didn’t finish my career as a guy who people looked at and said, ‘He’s done.’ They never looked at me and said I should give money back. ‘He’s stealing.’ They never did that with me. I took a lot of pride on everything I did.”

Strahan has fashioned an overwhelmingly successful post-playing career. He retired after the Giants won Super Bowl XLII and immediately landed a prime spot on “FOX NFL Sunday.’’ He became a crossover star by replacing Regis Philbin as Kelly Ripa’s co-host on the wildly-popular “Live with Kelly and Michael.’’

Strahan, 42, certainly has Hall of Fame credentials — a Giants record 141.5 sacks, seven Pro Bowls, a four-time All-Pro and the 2001 Defensive Player of the Year after his NFL single-season record 22.5 sacks. Unlike many supreme pass-rushers, Strahan was perhaps the best run-stopping defensive end of his generation.

Strahan had 18 sacks in his first three years playing for Dan Reeves and 27.5 sacks in his last four years playing for Tom Coughlin. In between, Strahan had 96 sacks in seven years for Fassel.

“Where he developed a lot was using the speed, up-field rush and get the tackle on his heels,” Fassel said. “The guy was back-pedaling so fast and then he would just change into a power rusher and take the guy and just dump him into the quarterback’s lap.

“He had a lot of sacks where he just took the offensive tackle and threw him into the quarterback and then tackled the quarterback,” Fassel said. “People made him a target: ‘We got to take this guy out of the game or else he’s going to beat us himself.’ ’’

Among the 17 finalists, four are in their first year of eligibility: Derrick Brooks, Marvin Harrison, Walter Jones and coach Tony Dungy. The others up for consideration are Morten Andersen, John Lynch, Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Kevin Greene, Ray Guy, Charles Haley, Claude Humphrey, Andre Reed, Will Shields, Aeneas Williams, former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo and Strahan.

“Your career is not who you are, a career is what you do,’’ Strahan said. “I won a Super Bowl, I’ve been to Pro Bowls, I’ve been All-Pro, I’ve been Player of the Year. I’ve done everything I can do. It’s not up to me to vote, to see if I’m in the Hall of Fame.

“For some guys, maybe, that’s their life. That’s all they have to hold on to. For me, that’s not it.”