Mike Celizic

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Michael Strahan, the gregarious defensive end for the New York Giants, had barely gotten settled on his dais in front of the assembled multitudes of camcorders and notepads when someone directed his attention to the rafters of University of Phoenix Stadium, where two huge banners were hung. One side was the face of Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. On the other was none other than Strahan, a mere defensive end sharing equal billing with the planet’s most famous quarterback.

The questioner wanted to know if Strahan was impressed to be in such exalted company, presented to the world as the official face of his team.

“That’s a damn good-looking man up there,” Strahan replied, flashing his trademark gap-toothed smile.

If others wanted to play the humility card during Super Bowl Week, that was their business. But Strahan was having none of that, lapping up the attention with undisguised glee. He’s always been as outgoing and fun-loving as a puppy, but this week he’s kicked it into another gear. He knows, like few others on either team, how close he came to not being there at all.

It wasn’t long before he was nudged to how he almost left the game last summer, telling his team he wasn’t sure he wanted to play another year. He sat on the beach while the Giants sweltered through two-a-days under the broiling August sun and then trudged through the four-game exhibition season.

He’d played 14 seasons, seven of them ending in Pro Bowl appearances, and had collected the NFL’s single-season sack record along the way. He’d made it up there with Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor and Bruce Smith when discussion turned to the subject of the greatest pass-rusher of the past 25 years. He’d also been to the Super Bowl in 2001, a game that ended in a crushing loss to Baltimore and virtually zero memories.

But the Giants had struggled since that Super Bowl year and in 2006 had finished 8-8. Strahan missed most of the season with an injury. The team’s best player, running back Tiki Barber, had already quit, and Strahan was thinking of following him.

How close did he come to hanging them up?

“Very close,” he admitted. Lying on the beach was fun. “It was refreshing, peaceful,” he said, smiling at the memory. But the closer the season got and the more he thought about it, the more he realized he had to go back.

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“At the end of the day, I didn’t want my career to end the way it did the year before — injured,” he said.

So he came back, and the Giants promptly lost their first two games, the defense giving up 80 points in the process. At that point, Strahan said, “I was thinking, ‘Why did I ever leave the beach? Can I go back to retirement without everybody hating me?’”

But the Giants got their act together and caught fire during the second half of the season, thanks in no small part to Strahan. And now here they are in the Super Bowl. And he’s talking increasingly as if he’ll be back next year, too, for season number 16.

“They wouldn't be here if I had retired,” he had said as if he were joking on Monday after the team arrived. He then retracted that and said that wasn’t true, but he was just being nice. It was probably right when he said it the first time. Without him, it’s hard to imagine the Giants getting ready to try to upset a Patriots team that has yet to lose a game all season.

Strahan may play the happy-go-lucky bon vivant, but his coaches and teammates paint a different picture. He's a player who works harder than anyone at his craft and a guy who’s always talking to his younger teammates, telling them what to expect and how to deal with it, being a coach on the field.

“I can’t imagine going through any of this without Michael,” said the team’s defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuola.

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