Retirement didn’t sit well

PHOENIX – The New York Giants were 0-2, their defense had given up 90 points and Michael Strahan, who sat out of training camp pondering retirement, couldn’t help but think how the beaches and fairways back in California must be looking.

He came back for this?

Fast forward nearly five months – to Super Bowl XLII.

Turns out, Strahan came back for this.

“I’m glad I hung in there,” beamed the 15-year veteran defensive end and NFL’s active sacks leader. “We started winning and I don’t know what happened, but we’re here.”

No one from either the Giants (13-6) or the unbeaten New England Patriots (18-0) looks more at home in this Super setting than Strahan. Not because he’s the most feared pass rusher in football, either. That time is passed.

At 36, though, Strahan had nine sacks during the regular season (second on the team), pushing his career total to 141 1/2 . That’s nearly 20 more than Simeon Rice (122), his next-closest active challenger. He can still play.

Strahan can still play to the crowd, too.

“He’s good at this stuff. He gravitates toward it,” said fellow defensive end Osi Umenyiora. “Mike’s a very charismatic guy. He’s also a great football player, which helps.”

Being a “media darling” in New York City – Strahan is on that A-list among Big Apple athletes, a notch below Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter – doesn’t mean much if you can’t deliver the goods. Strahan does. Usually with that big-gapped smile that places him second only to Tom Brady on the paparazzi hit list this week.

“I can outrun most of them,” Brady said. “I can’t outrun Michael.”

Strahan did his part for a New York defensive front that led the NFL with 53 sacks, helping get the Giants to their first Super Bowl in seven years. He is one of just two current players who took part in the 34-7 blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV at Tampa.

The Patriots are 12-point favorites to cut the Giants down to size Sunday night at University of Phoenix Stadium.

“This time feels different than the last time. This team feels different,” Strahan said. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m older or maybe I appreciate it more.”

Probably a little of both.

When the Giants reported to training in Albany, N.Y., Strahan wasn’t there. Every day the team dealt with the speculation that their franchise face was shutting it down.

Strahan, meanwhile, was at home on the West Coast, working out, but contemplating his future and “very close,” to walking away.

“I never knew what having an August felt like with a life away from football … not caring what was on TV about it or about me or not reading the newspapers,” he said. “It was relaxing and it was peaceful.”

Yet something about it was wrong.

As the days inched closer to the regular season, Strahan kept thinking back to the ‘06 season, when he played just nine games and eventually went on injured reserve with a nagging foot injury and wasn’t there to help his team in the playoffs. Teammates text-messaged him urging for a return.

Strahan reported after the Giants broke camp.

“Missing two-a-days wasn’t so bad,” he said with a grin.

The start of the regular season was. New York was trounced at Dallas and at home against Green Bay, then fell behind by two touchdowns on the road at NFC East rival Washington. It was in the second half of that game, when the Giants rallied for three touchdowns and stopped the Redskins on downs at the goal line for a gut-check victory that became the foundation for the season – and 10 straight road victories.

“Just having him back, his leadership, his savvy, his carefree approach loosened everybody up,” middle linebacker Antonio Pierce said. “He’s fun to be around.”

On Tuesday, Strahan was in his element during Super Bowl Media Day. He was animated. He was loud. He even sang, much to the dismay of some heckling teammates nearby.

When someone brought up the gap in his teeth – a physical trait that once prompted Tampa Bay defensive tackle Warren Sapp to wonder if Strahan knew of the NFL’s dental plan – the Giants’ sack man referenced fellow-gap celebrities Lauren Hutton, Madonna and David Letterman.

“We stick together,” he said.

Strahan, who was raised in Houston, was made for this stage. Fifteen years as the most visible football player in New York and beyond prepped him magnificently for it.

“I love New York City. The media is great,” he said. “The relationship you have with them is what you make of it. If you want to make it hard, it can be hard. If you want to make it easy, it can be easy. … And if you play well in New York, they do a great job. You play bad, they do an equally great job of telling you how bad you are. That’s motivating.”

Being back at the Super Bowl is invigorating. A victory here would make Strahan’s future Hall of Fame career complete – even give him the ideal platform to launch into retirement for good.

Jerome Bettis did it two years ago.

John Elway did it 10 years ago.

“Elway went out after winning two in a row,” Strahan said. “If we can win, who knows?”