With all the jobs Michael Strahan has, you can turn on the TV and usually see his face pop up on the screen just about any time of day, whether it is on FOX NFL Sunday breaking down the day’s action, hosting the game show $100,000 Pyramid or giving you the morning’s news every weekday on Good Morning America. However, the Hall-of-Famer didn’t always know he wanted to pursue a post-football career in media.
On the latest episode of Just Getting Started With Rich Eisen, Michael Strahan talked about his journey in the media. The former defensive lineman said that not only did he never seriously consider a career in media until his playing days were nearing an end, he didn’t really seek out a lot of relationships with reporters and hosts.
“I would restrict my media access when I was a player to be honest with you. I would just talk twice a week. That way I knew whenever I did say something, you were going to use it. It was important. I also knew by being in New York, I went on Best Damn Sports Show Period, I did a Super Bowl for ABC. I wasn’t really getting paid for these things, but it was fun.”
Strahan is aware that if he didn’t play his entire career with the New York Giants, he wouldn’t be as fortunate to have the opportunities he has such as LIVE! With Kelly and Michael back in 2012. It isn’t something he is apologizing for.
“As I played and I kept doing more of it, I started to understand more about the media. I understood more how it worked. As much as the media uses you after a game or during the week to get quotes, use your power to better yourself with them.”
Michael Strahan explained why he made the decision to go to FOX after his playing career was over. He was not without options.
“I worked for every network as a player, so I decided I wanted to go to FOX because FOX was probably the loosest. It was more fun and in a lot of ways, less football, more entertainment. That was important to me. I just wanted to feel like I’m somewhere where I can actually talk sports and have personality doing it.”
These days, Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan are co-workers at Good Morning America. It didn’t take working together though for Roberts to influence Strahan’s career. He told Rich Eisen that when he was still working for Live! With Kelly & Michael, it was a meeting on the red carpet with Roberts that made Strahan feel more at ease in his new role.
“At the Oscars, on the Red Carpet…I’m scared to death, Rich. This is Hollywood. These are big stars. I’m not supposed to be on that red carpet. I see Robin across the way, and I wave and I go over to see her. She looks at me and says how are you feeling, and I go Robin, I am scared. She goes hey, you got this, don’t worry, I came from sports too. You belong here. Completely changed my life with that one little thing. I saw Robin Roberts knowing she came where I came from and for her to say you belong here meant the world to me.”
