New York Giants great Osi Umenyiora credits Michael Strahan for his NFL success

USA Today

17-06-2025

New York Giants great Osi Umenyiora credits Michael Strahan for his NFL success
After selecting Penn State product Abdul Carter in the 2025 NFL draft, the New York Giants have the best defensive line since the days of Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI. At least on paper.
Of course, the Super Bowl XLII team had a strong defensive line that included Hall of Famer Michael Strahan playing opposite Osi Umenyiora.
Umenyiora, who is in the Giants Ring of Honor and is now working to promote the game of football in Africa, recently spoke with The Athletic and discussed the influence his teammate had on his career.
"The thing about football, honestly, is, as good as you are, I think that there's some things that people don't truly understand about the game," Umenyiora said. "If I hadn't gone to the New York Giants with Michael Strahan, I wouldn't have been the player that I was. He taught me so much about football that coaches just can't teach you.
"There's so many things you learn about the game just by watching other people who are at that level. And so me going into that locker room and seeing Strahan, and seeing some of the things that he was doing, I just couldn't wrap my head around how good he was. And so I had to learn.
"And he taught me and then I took so many things from his game and implemented them into my game, and that's what took my game to the next level."
Umenyiora and Strahan made for one of the best pass-rush duos in the league at their peak. Umenyiora is sixth on the Giants' list of all-time sack leaders.
Umenyiora was drafted in the second round of the 2003 NFL draft and played the better part of his career surrounded by talent on the Giants defensive line. After playing with Strahan for the first five years of his career, Umenyiora continued to play alongside Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul.
The impact that Strahan had on Umenyiora comes as no surprise. In fact, when the Giants drafted Kayvon Thibodeaux in 2022, Strahan was quick to offer his services as a mentor to the rookie.
Ideally, the Giants' current defensive line can have the chemistry of Strahan and Umenyiora and lift the rest of their fellow teammates on the defensive line.