For Real, Giants Are at Super Bowl

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) â€” Somewhere between the in-flight movie, ``Remember the Titans,'' and the last bag of peanuts, it hit Michael Strahan. Or, to be more precise, teammate Jessie Armstead kicked

Monday, January 22nd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) â€” Somewhere between the in-flight movie, ``Remember the Titans,'' and the last bag of peanuts, it hit Michael Strahan. Or, to be more precise, teammate Jessie Armstead kicked Strahan's airline seat.

``He kicked the chair and said, `Can you believe we're going to the Super Bowl?''' Strahan said Sunday after the New York Giants landed in Tampa. ``I said, `Wow, it's incredible.' I think it finally hit us that we're here.''

The Baltimore Ravens will get the same feeling when they arrive Monday afternoon. Then, the weeklong party that has transcended sports to become an American tradition will be fully under way.

``In pro football, this is the biggest thing you can do in your career,'' Strahan said. ``We're excited about it.''

Once again, the NFL has given football fans a Super Bowl nobody could have predicted when the season began.

While the Ravens (15-4) were considered an up-and-coming team, hardly anybody picked them to win their own division, let alone play for the Lombardi Trophy. The Giants (14-4) were thought to be a fourth- or fifth-place team in the NFC East by many observers â€” and by some in their own locker room.

``I went into the season with open eyes, just hoping something positive was going to happen,'' Strahan said. ``We finished 7-9 last year and the team didn't feel like it was on an upward climb. It's great to be where we are now, but believe me, a lot of us realize it was a long struggle to get there. It wasn't a given.''

Ravens center Jeff Mitchell, who is from Florida, walked into training camp and as he shook hands with former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Trent Dilfer, he casually suggested they would be back in Tampa to win the Super Bowl this season.

``I said it to break the ice,'' Mitchell said last week. ``But it turned out to be prophetic. That's kind of neat.''

The Ravens and Giants each benefitted from a system that has been in place the last decade or so, as the salary cap has infringed on both the standings and the year-to-year stability of rosters.

Rebuilding projects take months now, not years, as last year's Super Bowl teams, the St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans, can attest. More than ever, teams that can stay injury free and catch some kind of emotional lift can make the Super Bowl, even if they don't have the most ``talented'' or ``experienced'' rosters.

``Every NFL player goes into the season thinking he's going to win the Super Bowl,'' Giants offensive lineman Glenn Parker said. ``If you don't, you don't belong in the NFL. Unfortunately, reality slaps you in the face pretty early in the NFL for a lot of teams.''

It seems these teams have been faced with nothing but good news, and even when things went against them, they figured out ways to overcome.

Behind the stingiest defense in league history, the Ravens actually won the first two of the five straight games in which they didn't score a touchdown. Including the playoffs, they finished 15-0 in games in which they scored more than six points.

After dropping two straight in November, Giants coach Jim Fassel made the guarantee that has taken on Joe Namath proportions, assuring skeptics that New York would make the playoffs. The Giants did him one better and showed up at the Super Bowl.

``I think he knew what he was doing,'' Strahan said. ``When he said it, we as players put it on ourselves to try to make him happy.''

Of course, there may have been no bigger turnaround than the one Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis made. Charged with double murder in the stabbing of two men outside an Atlanta night club after last year's Super Bowl, Lewis eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. He was placed on probation and fined $250,000 by the NFL.

He responded with a dominating season in which he was voted NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

``Everyone said, `He might not be the same again. He might not get 100 tackles. Ray Lewis will never be the player he was.' Well, they were absolutely correct,'' Lewis said. ``I'm not the same player. I'm better.''