Michael Strahan breaks silence after national anthem controversy: 'I have nothing to protest'
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Giants great Michael Strahan has finally spoken up after facing severe backlash over national anthem gaffe.
The TV host found himself embroiled in controversy after he did not put his hand over his heart for ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ during a special broadcast from Naval Base San Diego ahead of Veterans Day.
The situation got worse when Strahan reportedly lashed out at a reporter outside of his New York City home when asked about the whole fiasco.
Michael Strahan claims to be not ‘proud’ of his behavior
Michael Strahan has addressed the chaos. He shared in a now-seemingly-deleted social media video, “Everybody it's Michael here, and I wanna address what happened this past weekend,” as reported by Daily Mail.
The 52-year-old first started with his unpleasant interaction with the media person as he said, “I feel like I need to address it because it's spilled over to the point where I get out of my car today and I'm ambushed by a media outlet here at my house."
“I'm not proud of the way I handled that whole situation, but I think anybody out there can understand the things you're gonna do. You're gonna protect your family and you're gonna protect your home, which I felt like I needed to do in that moment.”
Michael Strahan says national anthem blunder was an honest mistake
Michael Strahan then went on to talk about his viral national anthem blunder.
“If you want the truth, I'll tell you the truth... it's that I was caught up in the moment,” he began.
Strahan further explained, “I'm looking at all these young sailors standing there at attention before the national anthem played and I'm thinking to myself, ‘How incredible to be that young and to know that you wanna do this. It's such a commitment but you're willing to commit to something that gives us our freedoms.’ Plain and simple."
“I'm just sitting there in amazement and I'm always amazed, because I don't take it for granted no matter where we go around the world from Afghanistan to all the military institutions here in this country.”
Strahan also clarified that by the time he realized the national anthem was playing and “all my five guys had their hands over their hearts,” he panicked. But then decided to “stand here with my hands in front of me respectfully?”
“And if that offended any of our military and veterans, I apologize to you. Because that was never my intent,” he asserted.
Michael Strahan expresses his love for military
The former professional football player also revealed to his fans and followers that he’s “a product of the military, a proud lover of the military and a proud lover of who served before, now and who will serve in the future."
“We had our national anthem, I didn't have my hand over my chest. Everyone thought, ‘He's protesting. He's making a statement,’ which is so far from the truth. I have nothing to protest, I have no statements to be made," he noted.
“The only statement that should be made and that I wanna make is I love the military, I've always loved the military and I will always love the military. I'm a military brat. And so the fact that [people are] saying I'm unpatriotic couldn't be further from the truth,” Strahan added.
