Michael Strahan can still sting like a bee, but he’d prefer not to have to float like a butterfly.
The former NFL pro found himself on the receiving end of Dancing With the Stars cohost Alfonso Ribeiro’s hard pitch to consider competing in a future season of the popular ABC competition series. When asked which Good Morning America anchor he’d like to see on the show during a Tuesday appearance on the news program, Ribeiro teased, “I think if there was a guy, if he played for the Giants at one point in his life, ’cause you know he’d bring the whole New York audience, right?”
The GMA co-anchor leapt to his feet and joined guest Ribeiro in an impromptu shuffle, before resettling in his seat and declaring, “That’s as much as you get.”
Though Ribeiro continued to turn the screws, Strahan refused to relent. “This is the thing, and this is what scared me,” Strahan explained. “Every professional football player and athlete who’s been on the show said it’s the hardest thing they’d ever done. If it was harder than football was for me, I cannot fathom it at this point in my life.”
Still, Ribeiro tried everything, promising to pair Strahan with “a tall dancer to dance with you so it won’t look so awkward,” arguing that flying to Los Angeles to film the show would be easy since “you’re there on weekends.”
He also downplayed the testimonies of athletes who’ve expressed shock at the rigor of the training experience, postulating, “Maybe some of those athletes weren’t giving their all.”
Strahan has a sterling reputation as an athlete, having served as the defensive end for the New York Giants throughout his 15 years in the NFL, during which he helped lead the team to a win at Super Bowl XLII.
Eric McCandless/Disney
Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson, the most recent winners of ‘Dancing With the Stars’
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In his defense, however, there’s no shortage of athletes who’ve competed on Dancing With the Stars only to come away stunned by the difficulty of the experience. Olympic gymnast Sunisa Lee, who competed on season 30 of DWTS, told PEOPLE in 2021 that while “I don’t think anything will ever compare to the work I put into the Olympics… I have to say, probably Dancing With the Stars [was harder].” NFL stars Rashad Jennings, Marcellus Wiley, and Jared Allen all also vented about the “gruesome” trainings, in Jennings’ words, on a 2023 episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.
Drawing on his NFL days, Strahan attempted to pass the buck to his GMA co-anchor George Stephanopoulos, but when Ribeiro redirected his attention, the veteran TV host and political commentator politely demurred, “Yeah, no.”
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