RUSH TO JUDGMENT: Giants great Michael Strahan (above) has been dissed again by former Buc Warren Sapp (inset), who said Strahan is not as good a pass rusher as former Tampa Bay star Simeon Rice. (AP (inset))
Warren Sapp just can’t let his disdain for Michael Strahan go.
Sapp lit into the Giants great once again yesterday, saying Strahan took advantage of an easier position and was never as good a pass rusher as Simeon Rice, Sapp’s former Buccaneers teammate.
“Simeon was a better rusher than Michael Strahan any day of the week and twice on Sunday,” Sapp told the Tampa Tribune this week.
Rice averaged 14 sacks per season from 2001-2003, all from the position of right defensive end. That spot is considered a more difficult one from which to rush the quarterback than left end, because right ends are matched up against offensive left tackles — a position usually reserved for every team’s best blocker.
Sapp said Rice was better than Strahan in large part because the Giants moved Strahan from right end to left end in 1995, three years into in his 15-year career.
Sapp told the newspaper he suspects the move happened because Big Blue was worried about Strahan — a second-round pick from Texas Southern — being a draft failure at right end after he mustered just 5 1/2 sacks in his first two NFL seasons combined.
“[Rice] didn’t rush the worst lineman,’’ Sapp said. “You know the right tackle is the worst of the five. Strahan played right end his first [two] years. When they were putting the label on him as a bust, they put ‘B-U-S … OK, let’s transition him on the other side and see if he can play in his [third] year.’
“They put him at right end and he couldn’t do it, so they moved him to the weak guy — one-on-one with the [Eagles right tackle] Jon Runyans for eight quarters every year. [Rice] won’t ever have his name brought up [for the Hall of Fame], and that’s a shame. He’s one of the best pass rushers I’ve ever encountered in my life.’’
Strahan, who is fifth on the NFL’s all-time sack list with 141 1/2 sacks, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
But Strahan went on Twitter in February to respond after Sapp criticized him as “a media darling” upon his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame while Strahan came up short in the same vote.
“You never cease to amaze me!” Strahan wrote to Sapp at the time. “Enjoy your moment. You don’t need to take a shot at me to justify yourself to other people.”
Sapp has been a vocal critic of Strahan since 2002, when he mocked the final sack of Strahan’s record-setting 2001 season of 22 1/2 sacks as a gift from Brett Favre. The Packers quarterback had called a late audible on that play as a way to seemingly concede the historic sack.
“This is a man [Strahan] who wants something given to him and they gave it to him,’’ Sapp said at the time. “So have it.”