There’s a thin line between love and hate, and Michael Strahan found himself crossing it when he met Tom Coughlin. It was Coughlin’s Way-Or-The-Highway when he arrived in 2004, and Strahan had no time for Coughlin Time, or for his rules, and thought for sure the Giants were on the road to ruin and he was on the road to retirement.
Four years later, they would win a Super Bowl together. And when Strahan retired following Super Bowl XLII, Coughlin called him “the consummate New York Giant.”
A decade later, Strahan will become the 20th Giant inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday night in Canton, Ohio. And Coughlin, whose Giants will open the preseason Sunday night against the Bills, will be at the ceremony filled with pride.
“It gives us another great Giant when we go out there, and pass through the Hall of Fame, we can see the bust of another great Giant football player along with all the others,” Coughlin said.
The Giants could not have won Super Bowl XLII without Coughlin and Strahan mending fences and bonding the way they did.
“We had two very strong-willed people who eventually came to the realization we’re both after the same thing,” Coughlin told Michael Kay in 2013. “And some of the things that he accused me of being — ridiculous and idiotic — in the very beginning, he started to say, ‘Hmm.’ … The way that we conducted our business started to sink in for him and it started to make sense.
“He practiced as hard as he could, he ran full speed every day, he was good in meetings, he was great in the defensive line room, he was great as a team captain. He had a magnetic personality, he was a natural-born leader. He had played forever and played well, not just against the pass but against the run as well, so what’s not to like?”
No longer the Odd Couple, Coughlin and Strahan developed a Hall of Fame relationship. Strahan wrote the foreword for Coughlin’s second book “Earn The Right to Win.” Coughlin has asked Strahan to give pep talks to his Giants. Coughlin has visited Strahan on “Live With Kelly and Michael.”
“We didn’t necessarily see eye-to-eye right away, but thank goodness we won Michael over,” Coughlin said Tuesday.
Strahan didn’t begin to love the man until Coughlin showed his human side, proved he was more than an inflexible tyrant. The Leadership Council gave the players ownership, and Coughlin leaned on Captain Strahan. And Strahan no longer felt like Private Pyle in “Full Metal Jacket,” and his frown turned upside down, into that familiar gap-toothed smile. He decided he wanted to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
“One of the greatest things this guy has said to me was,” Coughlin revealed last year on “Live With Kelly and Michael,” ‘Coach, out of respect for you, I set my watch 10 minutes ahead.’”
After Tuesday’s practice, Coughlin said: “Couldn’t be more proud of him as he made the transition out of football into life, and how successful he’s been in the business he’s in now.”
Strahan , whose play against the run was “very rare,” according to Coughlin, registered 141 ¹/₂ sacks. His favorite came late in Super Bowl XLII, after a fake punt by Bill Belichick put the Patriots in field-goal range and rendered Coughlin apoplectic.
“I just grabbed him by the shoulders as we walked on to the field and I just said to him, ‘Don’t worry about it, we got it. Relax,’” Strahan once said. And sure enough, Strahan sacked Tom Brady out of field-goal range.
“As he got into those 14 and 15 years, he took his weight down, he was probably 252, 254, still playing with that kind of power over those left tackles with that great punch and that great extension against the run,” Coughlin said. “And just a great love of the game, and competing with tremendous pride. And his thought about fear of failure. That’s a great motivator.”
When Strahan held out in the summer of 2007, Coughlin emphasized to him how much he wanted him back as long as his heart was still in it. And it was. Strahan’s giant personality was infectious.
“The thing that I picked up on right away,” Coughlin said, “is that he has a great time with anybody if he wants to bust their chops — but he could take it. … .Very opinionated, no question about it, very loquacious, one is those personalities. Had a lot of fun. But could get serious, could ask serious questions, and you had to respect that. Always.”
When Strahan was elected to the Hall of Fame the night before Super Bowl XLVIII, Coughlin was thrilled for him.
“Very very proud of him. Very proud day for the New York Giants,” Coughlin said.