Michael Strahan looked like a rookie out there.
The Giants legend and NFL Hall of Famer earned poor reviews — particularly from 49ers fans — for his first time hosting the NFC postgame on-field celebration Sunday after the 49ers beat the Lions to advance to the Super Bowl.
Strahan cited the wrong score while🐼 asking San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan about the 17-po♒int comeback, and awkwardly did not interview 49ers legend and fellow Hall of Famer, Joe Montana, during the trophy presentation.
Running a smooth postgame show is no easy feat, and Strahan learned that the hard way while filling in for Terry Bradshaw, who wasn’t available because he was sick, during the Fox broadcast.
Mere seconds into the c𓆏elebration, Strahan handed the NFC Championship trophy to Montana and made it seem like he would interview the four-time Super Bowl champion.
He♓ instead left Montana just standing there awkwardly.
“Joe Montana take it away,” Strahan said after handing the trophy to Montana, “it goes to this man right here, Mr. Jed York.”
Montana held the trophy in the background while Strahan interviewed York, and then told him, “Joe, you can pass that off.”
Montana never spoke during the celebration.
Strahan then pivoted to Shanahan and 💧forgot the score that the 49ers rallied from in𝕴 their eventual 34-31 victory.
“Now coach, you were down 17-0 going in at the halftime,” Strahan asked Shanahan. “We want to know: What did you tell your team that they came out the second half and looked like the team that we expected them to look like in the first half?”
The 49ers did trail by 17 at halftime, but they were down 24-7, not 17-0, and they never trailed 17-0 at any point during Sunday’s game.
Strahan then made the small mistake of telling Christian McCaffrey he “signed” with the 49ers, when San Francisco actually acquired McCaffrey via trade.
Naturally, folks v♛oiced their displeasure on Twitter.
Arash Markazi of The Messenger : “That was Michael Strahan’s first trophy presentation. That is usually Terry Bradshaw’s job. It showed. Joe Montana was supposed to say a few words and present the George Halas Trophy to Jed York. Instead we got whatever that was.”
Dennis Dodd of CBS : “Im confused with the trophy presentation. Did the Niners win or did Michael Strahan? Joe Montana is the only person on that stage who wasn’t allowed to talk. There’s something wrong with that.”
Former NBC host Kraig Kann : “Michael Strahan is great at many things. Interviewing the NFC champs is not one of them.”