Strahan Ends Holdout… "He Went With His Heart"

Giants DE Michael Strahan ended his holdout Friday night and will return to practice on Monday with the team.

Does this surprise too many people out there? I’m really not too shocked about this one, but it is good news if you are a Giants fan.

On a different front, is anyone interested in trading for Byron Leftwich? The Jags said Friday they were interested in trading him. With the way our backups looked this preseason, he might not be a bad pickup…Just a thought…

Here’s the AP story on Strahan:

Seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan has decided to end his holdout and return for a 15th NFL season with the New York Giants.

“He went with his heart instead of his head,” Tony Agnone, his agent, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Friday evening. “He felt at this point he was part of the team, and he was going to go to battle with them.”

The decision came a day before the Giants had to cut their roster to the 53-man limit and a little more than a week before the season opener at Dallas.

“He knows he’ll be ready to go,” Agnone said of playing in the season opener. “He’s been working out like crazy.”

Strahan left the West Coast on Friday and planned to be at Giants Stadium on Monday when the team begins preparing for the Cowboys. He will have four practices before the game.

And Strahan might play more than the 2007 season.

“This does not mean at the end of the year that he is going to retire,” Agnone said. “He is going to sit down again in March like he always does, and he said: ‘I won’t be doing this next year.”

Agnone said Strahan informed Giants general manager Jerry Reese of his decision to play around 5 p.m. EDT. Agnone would not say when Strahan made up his mind, but he added the NFL’s single-season sack leader did not want to keep the team hanging.

The 35-year-old Strahan missed 36 days of training camp and amassed a $514,368 fine.

Agnone said the Giants agreed to reduce the fine total, but Strahan still will pay a “significant amount of money.”

Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon said the team had no immediate comment, and Reese did not return an e-mail seeking comment.

The announcement of Strahan’s decision came just hours after a frustrated coach Tom Coughlin said he was taking the approach that Strahan would not play this season.

Coughlin seemed upset that Strahan still was mulling whether he would play more than five weeks after training camp opened. He also was annoyed that Strahan’s absence made it tough to make final roster decisions and to pick a practice squad.

Third-year-man Justin Tuck has started at left end in the preseason, and he has played well.

Strahan, who is to make $4 million this season, had mulled retirement while considering a career in television, insisting the decision had nothing to do with money.

In a letter to Giants fans last month, Strahan said the holdout had nothing to do with his recent divorce, in which a judge awarded his former wife $15.3 million. Strahan has paid half that amount, and an appellate court granted him a temporary stay while it considers whether the award was too much.

Strahan Back Soon?

Seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan had constructive talks with the New York Giants twice in the past 24 hours, and he expects to make a decision soon on whether to retire or play.

General manager Jerry Reese described the talks on Monday night and Tuesday morning as “constructive and positive,” the team said in an e-mail to the media Tuesday afternoon.

Reese said Tuesday morning’s talk ended with Strahan telling him he expects to arrive at a decision about whether to continue playing within two days.

Tony Agnone, Strahan’s agent, did not immediately return an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

If the 35-year-old Strahan decides to play, he will have missed the entire preseason and will only have one week to prepare for the Giants’ season opener at Dallas on Sept. 9. The Giants (1-2) play their final preseason game on Thursday night in Foxborough, Mass. against the New England Patriots.

Strahan’s holdout and possible retirement has been the overriding story since the Giants players reported to training camp at the University at Albany on July 27. His holdout hit its 33rd day on Tuesday, and he has been fined $14,288 daily.

His fine total is $471,504.

While there were initial reports that Strahan wanted to renegotiate the contract that will pay him $4 million this season, he denied in an open letter to Giants fans on Aug. 5 that money had anything to do with his decision to stay away.

“When an athlete like myself — who does what I do for a living — starts having doubts, then it’s time to take a step back and seriously consider my future,” Strahan said in the letter that was distributed via e-mail by Agnone.

“Anyone who plays in the NFL with doubts or second guessing is not only putting themselves at risk, but their teammates also,” Strahan added. “I will never do that.”

Strahan’s 132½ sacks are tops among active players, and he set an NFL single-season record with 22½ sacks in 2001.

Many teammates have felt for weeks that Strahan will play this season.

Pro Bowl middle linebacker Antonio Pierce walked out of the locker room minutes before Reese announced that he had talked to Strahan and saw reporters waiting in the tunnel under Giants Stadium. Pierce also saw a luxury automobile from a car service.

“You guys waiting for Strahan?” Pierce quipped before he walked away laughing.

Whatever Strahan decides, the Giants discovered in training camp that they have two other solid defensive ends in one-time Pro Bowler Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck, who like Strahan missed part of last season with a Lisfranc foot injury.

Tuck had four tackles, a sack and a pressure in the 20-12 loss to the Jets on Saturday.

(AP)