How Will Strahan Saga Play Out?

Michael Strahan insist the thrill is really gone. All the wanton lust that once burned for pigskin has essentially evaporated. And yet, Coach Tom Coughlin, the party that would seem most aggrieved by the wayward linemen's drastically sudden change of heart, stands unperturbed. Inordinately so for a man whose way of being appears destined to take on a new face right before his very eyes.

Sentiment, no doubt, born of the rather sobering reality the longtime, grandpa of a coach has come to see and hear it all before. Lived through all the gut-wrenching drama and mind-numbing folly that go hand-and hand with being an NFL lifer. Has any of us yet forgotten one Tiki Barber?

Much like his manipulatively, self-centered styled teammate of yesteryear, Strahan is proving every bit in his element in the game of self-promotion, the sport of placing personnel pursuits yards ahead any of those held by the very teammates he professes to hold such an affinity for.

It's not always about what you do in this life, but often how you choose to do it. And that is proving to be case and point in the rapidly stagnating Strahan saga. Yes, the 37-year-old future Hall of Fame sack master has every right to call an audible on his career path when being at the pulse of all the action no longer serves to stimulates him.

But, if this is truly what all of this is really about, why wait until the dawn of training camp to come forth with news of such a poignant revelation? Why wait until it can all be so easily dismissed as mere fodder in the cat-and-mouse game of gaining leverage in accruing the hefty pay raise you've so relentlessly pursued?

The manner in which Strahan came to act essentially leaves his teammates grasping at straws in terms of just how they'll come to clean up the mess. In the end, his antics broke one of the cardinal rules of locker room decorum, that being teammates who truly care about one another, no matter what the beef with management, continue to play with and for each other. Yeah, we all know love can hurt, but in this case the 2008 Giants' season may never have the chance to recover.

All that said, experience assures Tom Coughlin his team may be better off starting its season without its noted sack master, as opposed to having to navigate itself through another egotistically-charged campaign the likes of which proved to be Barber's swan song/audition tape last year.

Barber used his Giants' platform last season to catapult himself into yet another high-profile occupation. Every indication seems Strahan may indeed be taking that same cue. Granted, Coughlin isn't quite ready to point fingers, but clearly the veteran coach came to a point of supreme exaltation upon management's collective hardball stance with its infamously temperamental star.

And so, how will all the games come to play out? With Strahan in the mix or on the sidelines? Either way, signals seem to bold well for Coughlin and his G-men. By not allowing one player, a one-time leader no less, to simply run roughshod over team policy and locker room morale, they've already shown a propensity for defending their turf.

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