No, Strahan isn't having his own "Favre moment" and doesn't already want to come out of retirement. And he wasn't there to show off his Super Bowl championship ring won last season with the New York Giants, after beating the Cowboys in the playoffs.
Instead of spying on a division rival, Strahan -- who left his title ring at home -- visited the Cowboys as "an observer" for his new role as part of Fox's NFL pregame show.
"It's good to be back at training camp where I don't have to participate," Strahan said with a wise grin. "For about 30 seconds, I was like, 'Um, I kind of miss it.' I had my Favre moment, then realized that I'm not going to do that. I'm done."
Still, it was a strange to see Strahan at camp with the Cowboys, who the seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end played against in the NFC East for 15 seasons.
"It makes me sick looking at him. At least he didn't wear his Super Bowl ring out here," tight end Jason Witten said, half-jokingly. "I told him I didn't know if I'd let him in here. He's still got buddies over there."
Strahan watched the morning practice from between the two fields, briefly speaking with Cowboys coach Wade Phillips, other coaches and some players. Pro Bowl safety Roy Williams stopped after completing his turn in a drill to hug Strahan.
"Every time I looked over, he had a lot of people around him. That's just the perks of being a Super Bowl champion," receiver Terrell Owens said. "He's taken on a new role being part of the media, so I don't really talk to the media that much."
The 36-year-old Strahan announced his retirement in June, four months after the Giants' stunning Super Bowl victory over the previously undefeated New England Patriots. Strahan spent his entire career with New York.
Strahan pondered not playing last season, but returned days before the opener. That led to a perfect ending, and he says he's staying retired.
"I enjoy waking up when I want to. I enjoy saying, 'Do I feel like working out? Nah.' This is going a lot better or just as well as I expected," Strahan said. "You can't beat winning the Super Bowl and playing the way that we played. There is just value in the way that we ended.
"I won the ring, that's good enough. I'm not going to push my luck," he said.
Dallas beat the Giants in both regular-season games last season, when the Cowboys tied a team record with 13 victories, won the division title and had the NFC's No. 1 seed. New York won three road games in the playoffs, the second came against the Cowboys, en route to the Super Bowl.
When Strahan saw Jerry Jones in Arizona before the Super Bowl, Strahan offered his unsolicited opinion about the Cowboys to the team owner.
"That was the toughest team and the best team in the league that we played," Strahan said, relaying what he told Jones. "After that game, we did feel like we could win it all. That was the real challenge for us, playing against the Cowboys. And I let Jerry know that."
Strahan said his visit to Southern California to see the Cowboys marked the first time he's been in a different NFL camp.
Yet, he was already preparing for his new TV role, easily offering his opinion about Brett Favre when asked about the Green Bay Packers quarterback who also retired after last season but now says he wants to play again.
"Brett's a phenomenal player and person so it's hard now to see all the things that are happening because I think it takes away from his legacy," Strahan said. "You just don't want to see anybody like that tarnished in any way because of what they've done for the game of football."
As for Strahan, he's retired from playing -- and staying that way.
"When I said I was done," he said, "I was done."
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