The Dallas Cowboys’ defence in the 1990s was strong enough, but it could have been even stronger since, after winning Super Bowl XXVII, the Pokes had the 29th pick in the NFL Draft, which is usually reserved for the winner of the first round. Michael Strahan claims that if Jimmy Johnson had fulfilled his pledge, his name would have been scheduled to appear in that time period.
In an interview with Tom Brady for the “Let’s Go!” podcast, Strahan recounted that “Jimmy promised he was going to draft me to the Cowboys and flew me to Dallas.” “I met Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin and all these guys.
At the time, Houston native Strahan was a Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision) student at Texas Southern, where he had made a name for himself as a serious NFL prospect. It seemed that Strahan was meant to be in Dallas; on draft day, he had a contract with the Cowboys and was prepared to sign as soon as the selection card was turned in. However, the call never came since Dallas instead gave the Green Bay Packers their 29th pick (along with their 112th choice) in return for the team’s second, fourth, and eighth round picks as well as a second pick that they had already acquired from San Francisco.
Strahan was forced to exercise patience as the Packers ultimately selected Alabama safety and future Cowboy George Teague to end the first round. Six selections before Dallas made their first selection with the first pick in the Packer trade, he was eventually selected by the New York Giants with the 40th pick.
Years after the incident, Strahan jokingly remembered addressing Johnson, his coworker at Fox Sports now. “I tell Jimmy that he lied. You promised me,'” Brady was reminded by a chuckling Strahan. “He said, ‘Well you know I thought you were going to drop and I can get you a lot lower, plus I didn’t know you were going to be any good.'” One of the few, if not particularly egregious, mistakes made during the Johnson era was passing on Strahan. Of the four players selected at No. 29 in his place (Kevin Williams, Darrin Smith, Derrick Lassic, and Reggie Givens), all but one of them left the Dallas roster by 1997. Strahan went on to become one of the Cowboys’ most frequent rivals throughout his career.
During his talk with Brady, Strahan couldn’t help but consider the theoretical implications of wearing a star on his helmet instead of the lowercase letter “NY.” “If I had been a Cowboy, my life would be completely different,” Strahan stated. “Yeah, I was so young and from Germany, but New York was the best place for me, even though it’s a difficult city to play in due to the pressure of the media and scrutiny.” I had no idea that I needed to accomplish this.”
