How SMAC Entertainment Reinvented the Multi-Hyphenate Athlete
variety.comKatcy Stephan Michael Strahan’s time in the spotlight might easily have ended when he walked away from the NFL in 2008. After all, it’s pretty hard to top a 15-year run with the New York Giants that landed him in seven Pro Bowls and culminated in a Super Bowl upset win over the New England Patriots. “Your career is over when you’re still very young,” he says. “I was 36 when I retired!” But Strahan knew he had more to achieve.
As it turns out, Constance Schwartz-Morini, a razor-sharp alum of the NFL and talent agency The Firm, saw Strahan’s potential for greatness off the field.
She’d tapped him to emcee a golf tournament in the ’90s, and they became lifelong friends. Under her guidance, Strahan revamped his brand and branched into TV, first becoming an analyst on “Fox NFL Sunday” and then landing the coveted hosting gig opposite Kelly Ripa on the syndicated morning show “Live With Kelly and Michael.” “I call her the boss, because she is the boss,” Strahan says of Schwartz-Morini, adding he’s learned better than to question her sage advice. “She’s more than likely right,” he quips.
In the years since, Strahan has transformed from a defensive end to a powerful multi-hyphenate,becoming an author, an entrepreneur and one of the most visible faces on TV, hosting “Good Morning America” and “The $100,000 Pyramid” on ABC.
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