Michael Strahan: 'You've Never Lived Unless You've Hit Tom Brady'

Michael Strahan still smiles when he thinks about bringing Tom Brady down to the ground.

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Complex Original

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Believe it or not, it’s been almost a decade now since Michael Strahan last suited up for the New York Giants. He retired from the NFL back in 2008, shortly after the G-Men knocked off the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. But during an appearance at WWD’s Men’s Wear Summit in Brooklyn on Tuesday, the Hall of Fame defensive end said that there’s still one thing he really misses about playing in the league—sacking opposing quarterbacks and, more specifically, Tom Brady.

Strahan started talking about Brady when the subject of his stolen Super Bowl LI jersey came up. Strahan said that he, too, had been the victim of thefts in the locker room throughout his NFL career. But he said he "got hip to it" eventually and figured out ways to prevent people from stealing his stuff. And Strahan said he was surprised that Brady had left his most recent Super Bowl jersey unattended after the game, considering he had another Super Bowl jersey stolen just two years earlier.

But then, the conversation turned to Strahan sacking Brady, and his eyes apparently lit up. He talked at length about what a rush it was to lay the Patriots quarterback out during his career and said he genuinely misses it even to this day.

"I do like tackling people, there’s nothing like it," he said. "Trust me, I could play forever. I would have loved to have played forever. You’ve never lived unless you’ve hit Tom Brady. Not just Brady but any quarterback. Like, you hit a guy, hit a grown man, and you hear the life and the breath leave his body. There’s something very empowering about that. Then, you hit Brady, you sack him, and you land on Brady. And you get up and you’re like, 'Boy, I see what Gisele is feeling. You know, I just laid down with Tom Brady. That was cool.'"

The "I see what Gisele is feeling" comment is a little weird. But it sounds like Strahan really enjoyed beating Brady down during their playing days. And judging from Strahan’s description of it, something tells us Brady doesn’t miss it one bit.

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