Michael Strahan, one of the greatest players in Giants history and a certain future Hall of Famer, today informed the team that he will retire after a 15-year career spent entirely with the organization.
 
Strahan, who holds the NFL single-season sacks record and the franchise marks for games played and career sacks, leaves four months after his career’s crowning moment, the Giants’ Super Bowl XLII triumph over the New England Patriots. Fittingly, the last tackle he made in his career was a six-yard sack of Tom Brady in the third quarter of the Super Bowl.
 
Strahan called team president John Mara this morning to tell him he will retire. He will discuss his decision tomorrow at a Giants Stadium news conference, which is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. in the players' dining area, adjacent to the locker room.
 
“Michael called me earlier this morning to tell me he had decided to retire,” Mara said. “I told him I was disappointed and that I knew he could still play at a very high level and we were hoping to have him back. But I certainly understand his decision. I told him he’s been a great Giant. He thanked me for everything the organization has done for him. I said, ‘I think you’ve done more for us than we can ever do for you.’”

Strahan is the second prominent Giant to retire in as many years; Tiki Barber, the franchise’s career rushing leader, ended his career following the 2006 season.
Since the Giants won the championship four months ago, Strahan has been undecided about whether to retire on top or return for a 16th season. He has worked out in Giants Stadium when he’s been in the area and he attended the team’s Super Bowl ring ceremony on May 29. But he had steadfastly refused to provide any public hints about whether he would return or retire. But with the Giants having a mandatory mini-camp later this week, Strahan thought the time was right to make an announcement.

“It was important that my teammates knew which way I was going before they got on the field to start the work to defend our title,” Strahan told foxsports.com. “It's time. I'm done.”

Strahan almost retired prior to the 2007 season; he missed the Giants’ entire training camp while pondering whether to leave the team or stay in uniform. He reported to the team five days before the season opener and played in all 20 regular season and postseason games – starting all but the first – and finished with 50 tackles (28 solo) and 9.0 sacks.

Strahan became just the third player to wear a Giants uniform for 15 seasons, joining Hall of Famer Mel Hein (1931-45) and Phil Simms (1975-93). He played in a Giants-record 216 regular season games. Former tight end Howard Cross is second on the franchise’s career list with 207 games played. Strahan also played in 10 postseason games.

Strahan finished his career with 141.5 career regular season sacks, the fifth-highest total in history (since sacks became an official statistic in 1982). The former Giants record-holder was Hall of Famer linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who had 132.5 sacks. Taylor had 9.5 sacks as a rookie in 1981, the year before sacks became an official statistic. Those additional sacks give Taylor an unofficial total of 142.0.

In 2001, Strahan set the NFL single-season sack record with 22.5. He also topped the NFL in 2003 with 18.5 sacks, the second-highest total of his career. Strahan is the only Giant to twice lead the league in sacks. Strahan also holds the Giants’ postseason record with 9.5 sacks.
Strahan’s 141.5 regular season sacks were divided among 64 quarterbacks. His most frequent victim was Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb (12.5 sacks), followed by two now-retired quarterbacks, Jake Plummer (7.5) and Drew Bledsoe (7.0).

Strahan played in seven Pro Bowls. Only Taylor (10), Harry Carson (9), Rosie Brown (9) and Emlen Tunnell (8) were selected to more Pro Bowls as Giants.
In addition to his impressive statistics, Strahan was a team leader whose gregariousness, insight and humor made him a go-to guy for the media and a favorite among his teammates. The defensive line meeting room has long been known as an area where thick skin is a requisite, in part because of Strahan’s skill at delivering – and his willingness to receive – a cutting barb.

Word about Strahan’s retirement spread quickly after the players returned to the locker room following this morning's voluntary organized team activity.
“He will be missed,” quarterback Eli Manning said. “He is a tremendous leader of this team. He has a great attitude, great work ethic, has taught a lot of young players coming in how you are supposed to act as a football player, how you are supposed to prepare and play the game, and he has been a great role model for a lot of players on this team.

“He will always be associated with the New York Giants and he has been a great leader, a great player, a role model for all the guys in learning how to play the game and how to prepare yourself, and he has been great for me since I have been here in watching him and the way he conducts himself on and off the field and the way he prepares each week.  He will be missed as a leader of this team.”

“I guess I am just going to have wishful thinking that hopefully he is going to come back,” said Amani Toomer, the 13-year pro who now becomes the longest-tenured Giants player. “I know there are a lot of tackles in the league that are getting excited right now, but I have to see it to believe it. You hear a lot of things in the papers and you and I both know that it is not always true, but I don’t know.
 
“This is a very personal decision and whatever he does I am going to be 100 percent behind him. He has had a great career and he really doesn’t have much more to prove, but I always tell him, ‘You have to defend it, you can’t just go out on top. You can’t be the guy who takes his ball and goes home when he is winning after a couple games of one-on-one in basketball.’”

But Strahan decided it’s time to pack up the ball and begin his post-player life. For several reasons, no unit is as affected by Strahan’s retirement as the defensive line. Strahan was the leader of the line who advised young players on everything from their diet to side-stepping tackles, who encouraged everyone at practice and who remained a force on the field until his final game.

“It is a sad day, a very, very sad day for me personally because I love that guy,” said right end Osi Umenyiora, who played in his second Pro Bowl last season. “He is like a brother to me. He has put in 15 strong years in the NFL and that is something that in this day and age is damn near impossible to do, so he had a strong career. I am happy for him. He has a lot of opportunities off the field. He is probably the best Giant ever in my opinion so I am happy for him, but I am sad for myself.
 
“I am surprised, because with the way he was playing and the way he was producing I thought at least he would give it another year or two. But he retired at the top of his game. A lot of us don’t get the opportunity to do that, so I am happy for him.”
 
The first candidate to replace Strahan at left end will likely be fourth-year pro Justin Tuck, who had 10.0 sacks and played well as both an end and sub tackle last season.
 
“You know as well as I know that starting really doesn’t matter in this locker room,” Tuck said. “We are going to put the best two out there that can play the run and play the pass and everybody else is going to have their roles and whatever that is that the coaches see fit is what we are going to do.”
 
Tuck was asked what he learned from Strahan.
 
“Everything,” Tuck said. “He basically taught every defensive end in this locker room how to play NFL football as far as how he uses his hands, how he protects himself on certain plays in games, how he prepares for games, just about how to go about your business as a professional in this league - he has taught us all that.
 
“Obviously, this guy is going to be missed. He is a great teammate, the leader of this football team, the spokesman of this football team, so it just means a lot of people are going to have the opportunity to step up.”
 
An interesting sidebar to this story is what the coaches might do with Mathias Kiwanuka. A first-round draft choice as a defensive end in 2006, Kiwanuka was shifted to strongside linebacker and played well before suffering a season-ending leg injury in Detroit on Nov. 18. With Strahan gone, will Kiwanuka return to end?
 
“I hope he does,” Tuck said. “That, again, gives you that three-headed monster and as we all noticed last year that is very effective. I am trying to invite Kiwi over to the house to eat some more lasagna so he can put a few pounds on.”
 
“I’ve been though the whole ‘What position am I going to play?’ thing,” Kiwanuka said. “The only way I can approach it is to wait until I hear something. Right now, I’m a linebacker and that’s the way I’m going to approach practice in this mini-camp.”
 
Kiwanuka is in a wait-and-see mode. So are the Giants, who, for the first time in 15 years, will find out what life is like without Michael Strahan in the lineup.