Michael Strahan, the ex-pro football player who has taken the entertainment world by storm with product endorsements, television shows, and co-hosting a popular daytime talk show, decided to not go down the road that many celebrities take when they become famous: changing their bodies. Many celebs get a tummy tuck here, get “a little” plastic surgery there, or get their teeth fixed. But Strahan doesn’t mind the gap in his teeth that everyone associates with his smile now.
In a recent interview, the Live! With Kelly and Michael co-host reveals 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.
“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, 41, 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.”
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“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. “I’m not perfect. I don’t want to try to be perfect.”
“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.”
