Michael Strahan, the ex-pro football player who has taken the entertainment world by storm with commercials, product endorsements, television shows, and co-hosting the popular daytime talk show, LIVE with Kelly & Michael announced that he would be leaving his hosting gig to be an anchor on the successful, Good Morning America morning show.
On the show, Michael addressed the crowd, “I can’t ask for better fans at all. You guys have been absolutely amazing,” he told his fans.
At the end of the show, he closed out, lauding co-host Kelly Ripa for her openness and the impact she has made on his life:
“I really want to thank, of course, Kelly Ripa, because Kelly welcomed me here and I’ve learned so much from her, and she’s just been an amazing influence on me. This has truly changed my life to be here with her, and I know that the show will continue to be strong and great because of Kelly…Kelly, I thank you. I love you and everyone else here at LIVE!.”
Despite his success, unlike many other celebs who become more in the spotlight get a tummy tuck here, get “a little” plastic surgery there, or get their teeth fixed, Strahan didn’t do any of that. In fact, Strahan doesn’t mind the gap in his teeth that everyone associates with his smile now. He says it helped him get to where he is now.
In a recent interview, he revealed that there was a time when he thought about closing his trademark gap-toothed grin. But ultimately he realized that his smile, however “flawed” it was by Hollywood standards, was as much a part of his identity as his Hall of Fame pro football career and fun-loving TV personality.
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“I was really close to closing it up. I was at the dentist having him do mock-ups. I thought about it,” the retired NFL great tells ELLE mag, recalling how much pressure there was to be perfect as a young 20-something athlete for the New York Giants. “You can fix everything now.”
Strahan decided, however, that he didn’t need to be “fixed.”
“I made the conscious effort to say, ‘This is who I am,'” he explains of why he didn’t and won’t close up his teeth. It was actually something his mom and dad instilled in him was to be himself at all times. “I’m not perfect. I don’t want to try to be perfect.”…
He also said that he needed to be himself and if people are going to like him, let them like the real him. Turns out, he was right.
“At this point, I don’t think my kids would recognize me without it,” he jokes. (Strahan has four children from previous relationships: Tanita, 20, and Michael Jr., 17, with first wife Wanda Hutchins; and twins Sophia and Isabella, 8, with second wife Jean Muggli.) “They’d be like, ‘Who is this stranger in the house? Call 911!'”
He took that same pride during his Hall of Fame ceremony. While most Hall of Fame busts depict non-smiling players, Strahan insisted that his famous gap be included. The current issue of the New Yorker profiles Hall of Fame sculptor Blair Buswell, and discussed Strahan’s decision to go smiley at length:
Buswell lets players choose the likeness they prefer (young or old, bearded or clean-shaven), but he typically discourages them from smiling. “I give them disclosures, and one of them is that bronze teeth never look right,” he said, noting that the former Broncos quarterback John Elway complained, in 2004, that his teeth looked like Chiclets. But Strahan was insistent—”I want to be the smiling giant”—so the sculptor agreed. “I’ll do it,” Buswell said. “I’ll just say it’s not the most popular choice.”
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