Michael Strahan retired on top after winning a Super Bowl championship with the New York Giants, has a blossoming career as an NFL analyst and a morning show host and is one of 15 finalists hoping to make it to the NFL's Hall of Fame this Saturday, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have his fair share of critics, including former Tampa Bay Buccaneers pass-rusher Warren Sapp who doesn't believe Strahan belongs in the Hall.
Sapp continued to criticize Strahan publicly, but the Hall of Fame hopeful and former Giants defensive end wouldn't bite.
"Football was part of my life, but it is not my entire life," Strahan said via ESPN. "So for some guys, maybe that's their entire life and that's all they have to hold onto. Playing football, sacking quarterbacks, that was part of my life, and I did it and I moved on. The tiger does not pay attention to the opinion of the sheep."
Strahan and 14 others await Saturday's football Hall of Fame election, and Sapp--who was elected to the Hall of Fame last year--has been open about his belief that Strahan doesn't deserve the honor for reasons that Strahan can't fathom, and he continued his verbal crusade against him at the NFL's Super Bowl XLVIII media day in New Jersey on Tuesday.
"I don't think his résumé stacks up," Sapp said, according to ESPN. "Four straight Pro Bowls and a mythical sack record. When you really measure it up, he comes up short, except you all are giving it to him."
Sapp has been openly critical about Strahan's sack record of 22.5 that he set in 2001 on a play against Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre that resulted in what looked like the signal caller taking a dive. Strahan usually doesn't fire back on one of his biggest critics, but he did comment on Tuesday.
"I am. I'm all hype," Strahan said per ESPN. "I lasted 15 years, all hype. I had 141.5 career sacks, all hype. I was always a starter. I played left end, and that made me get sacks. My coaches kept putting me in the game because they felt it gave us the best chance to win, and that was all hype."
Strahan, who appears on Fox NFL Sunday and Live With Kelly Ripa, said that he hasn't given much thought to Saturday's election nor the fact that he didn't make it last year on his first-ballot, but he admitted that it would be special to get the nod this year with the Super Bowl taking place in New Jersey.
"If you make it in anywhere, it doesn't matter," Strahan said via ESPN. "To be honest with you, I get reminded of it by everybody else. I don't think about it. If I make it in, that would be awesome. If I make it in in New York, that would be double-incredible."
Despite his contractors, Strahan could be voted into the Hall of Fame come Saturday, and Sapp won't have any say in it.
"I'm glad he doesn't have a vote," Strahan told ESPN.
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