Watch: "It was surreal" - Former NFL player Michael Strahan describes his experience onboard Blue Origin mission
Former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan accomplished a great deal in his 15-year NFL career. He was drafted in the second round of the 1993 NFL Draft out of Texas Southern University, a historically black college, by Giants general manager George Young. Strahan played in nine games, racking up three combined tackles and recorded his first career sack on Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback Ken O’Brien in Week Seven of the 1993 season. From 1994 to 1996, the four-time All-Pro defensive end had 17 sacks as well as two interceptions in 1995.
In 1997, he recorded his first career double-digit sack season with 14, which is tied for third with Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith. He followed up with another double-digit sack season in 1998 with 15, which was again tied for the third most that year. In both 1999 and 2000, he had five and a half sacks and nine sacks, respectively. The seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end made up for the previous two years of single-digit sacks by leading the league with 22.5 sacks and forced fumbles with six in 2001.
When Michael Strahan set the sack record (22.5) for a 7-9 NYG team in 2001 he received … as many MVP votes as you and I did.
You know who received 4 votes? Kordell Stewart.
Ben saying TJ deserves consideration is a show of respect but that award is aligned wQBs & team success.
The 22.5 sacks are an NFL record that still stands today. Strahan once again led the NFL in sacks with 18.5 in 2003. He won AP Defensive Player of the Year in 2001 as well. In 2005, he had his sixth and final double-digit sack season with 11.5 sacks and led the league in tackles for loss with 18. Two years later, Strahan won his first Super Bowl ring as the Giants defeated the New England Patriots 17-14. He retired after the season on top and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014 with 141.5 career sacks, the sixth most in NFL history.
Strahan: "It was surreal"
Strahan had an out-of-this-world NFL career and his TV career has reached new heights too. Whether it was co-hosting Live with Kelly and Michael alongside Kelly Ripa or now on the morning show Good Morning America, he has done well on planet Earth. It seemed only natural that his next exploits would lead him to venture out of our atmosphere. Strahan and the Blue Origin crew of astronauts successfully launched into space and returned to Earth aboard the rocket named "New Shepard" on Saturday morning.
TOUCHDOWN has a new meaning now!!!
WOW…. that was amazing!!! 🚀🚀 @blueorigin @SMAC https://t.co/xz54JT49f3
The mission was the rocket's third human flight of 2021 and, per Blue Origin, it was the first human flight with a complete astronaut manifest of six crew members in a capsule. Strahan described the feeling after exiting the rocket:
"It was surreal ... it was unbelievable. It's really hard to describe it".
Needless to say, he wants to go back again, perhaps with a view to conquering another area in his life as he did in football and more recently in showbiz.