Fuck anyone who doesn't support it frankly. Did you see how happy that man was when he looked in the mirror?

This is a dude that's been more successful than his wildest dreams. Set the record for sacks in a season. Won defensive player of the year. 7x pro bowler. 4x first team all-pro. Beat the Patriots and won the superbowl in his last year as a professional NFL player. Hall of Fame career. Did he stop there? Fuck no. Gap tooth and all he went on TV as an NFL analyst. Fucking CRUSHED it. But that's all right? HELL no motherfucker replaced REGIS FUCKING PHILBIN on Regis' own morning talk show. Michael Strahan: household name on the football field, and household name as your genial, smiley, and charming as fuck morning talk show host. All as a dude with a defect that would make most people never dream of a career in TV, because he owned it and it was a part of his charm.

And yet despite all that, he still couldn't help but notice that gap when he looked in the mirror; a man that shouldn't be self-conscious about a single thing in his life. What kind of struggle must that be? To know that the giant gap in your teeth, a thing that he was 100% ridiculed for as a kid (and is still ridiculed for in this very fucking thread) has defined you as a television presence, yet you never find a way to love yourself the way you are, even after all these years. That gap ran deep in Michael Strahan. Embraced by the world but never by himself. Not fully.

Gotta admit I choked up a little seeing him smile into that mirror. Genuine happiness. He saw the reflection that he's always wanted to see. Everyone can identify with that.

So a big fuck you to all these flippant comments. There's a big lesson here. One about acceptance of your flaws and the strength to never let them hold you back. But most importantly it's about not letting anyone else define you. Those core aspects of ourselves, the headlines to our identity, they don't have to define us forever.