Michael Strahan

It's a powerful experience to be treated by different doctors who team up to put you back together. I know. I've been the guy lying on the field when the Giants' doctors and athletic trainers have come out to make sure that my knee or my hip isn't seriously injured. Then I make it to the sidelines and the medical staff continues to evaluate and treat me so I can get back on the playing field as soon as possible.

That's the way the New York Giants sports medicine team works, like a team.

I know that's not always how it works in pro sports. You've got doctors and therapists and athletic trainers with a lot of degrees and a lot of knowledge among them, and the experts protect their turf. But on the Giants staff, they understand how to work together to give the players the best advice and best treatment. There's no ego involved. Dr. Kelly is an associate team doctor for the NY Giants and one of the top hip specialists in the country, but he's a personable guy. He's always been there to give me the right advice on treatment. Or he'll work with the other medical staff and team athletic trainers to come up with stretching or strengthening exercises for me.

When Dr. Rob came to the Giants, I'd been in the league for ten years. I had a lot of preexisting conditions, and I just thought, they're healed as well as they are going to heal. I was just going to have to live with the scar tissue and the restrictions, play as long as I could with it. But with Dr. Rob working on me, I got a new lease on life for the last part of my career. He's worked on everything from my neck to my shoulders to my back to my hips to my knees to my ankles to my feet to my toes! He got rid of the restrictions, brought blood flow to these areas, and been involved in my rehab from surgery.

It's funny, you can tell in the locker room when someone is really effective.

When Rob first came to the Giants, mostly only the older guys, such as myself and wide receiver Amani Toomer, used him. But last year, we're rushing to get to him before a game, because now it's freakin' crowded in the treatment room. All the younger guys are using him. Which lets you know the players believe in what he's doing.

The one game where everything came together, all the treatment and preparation, was the last game of my career, the 2008 Super Bowl. Now, by the end of the season, you're basically holding your body together with duct tape. But I made sure I worked with Rob every day of the two weeks leading up to the game-it was the big one and I wanted to get it right. When I went out there against tpe New England Patriots, it was the best I'd probably felt in ten years. I was leaping over people like a young guy again. One sack has become kind of famous, where my body is just hurtling horizontally at New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. I told Rob I could never have made that play without him and his muscle work. And I had confidence knowing that if I did get seriously hurt, Dr. Kelly had my back, or my hip.

It was the most amazing thing. I said to myself, "If I could have that much time to work on my muscles between every game, I could play forever." But I think all people at some point in their lives realize that their body is their business and that they had better take care of it. This book, Muscle Medicine, by two people who kept me in one piece, Bryan Kelly and Rob DeStefano, is the place you should start.

Michael Strahan,
All-pro New York Giants defensive end, FOX Sports NFL studio analyst