Ahh, good times!!
Strahan owns Runyan.
Literally. If Strahan went to Scores and asked for a lap dance, he would ask for John Runyan because Runyan is HIS BITCH!!
And Warren Sapp is a first ballet HOFer?? Yeah, ok.
There is no doubt who the superior talent was and for longer and far more versatile. No question.
Michael Strahan vs the Eagles - (
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Runyan is blocking Strahan and then knocks him over, then Runyan proceeds to reach a hand out and help Strahan back up, but then the run comes right by the two and Runyan starts blocking Michael again, it's great.
Had Michael not been hurt his rookie year and had his back held up a little better there is no doubt in my mind that he'd have gone down as the best defensive player of his era. From 1996 to 2007 I think he was the overall best DE in the game for sure, without question, and definitely in the top 3 of anyone's list of best defensive players.
You could not run on him but that doesn't necessarily show up in the stat sheets. Personally, I thought if he had played in 2008 at a high level rather than retiring and Osi had stayed healthy that defense would have been so good it would have carried the team through the playoffs. The combination of pressure and run defense would have been spectacular. Of course, Plax shooting himself cost us the most but the defense could have been "all-time" good with Strahan and a healthy Osi rotating.
Alas, back-to-back SB's were not to be. So much factors into winning the big game.
He was a great player and significantly better than Sapp all things considered. Runyan was a very good player himself but no one gave him more trouble than MS and he'll tell you that himself. Uncalled holding play after play is the only thing that stopped Strahan's berserko year and he would have easily had 30+ sacks. He was pretty unstoppable and averaging 2 sacks per game was far closer to a reality than a fan's fantasy.
He is the quintessential Giant and we need another guy like him for Eli's twilight years. Unfortunately, with the evolution of the game and 3 step drops being more than norm that aberration, 22 1/2 sacks will be hard to come by even with more pass attempts per game, IMO.
Could you imagine prime time Stra and prime time LT on the field together? Holee sh-iat!!