SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- Those are some mighty big shoulders possessed by Giants defensive end Michael Strahan, the ninth-year veteran who not only tops the payroll for the defending NFC champions but also serves as their spiritual advisor and self-appointed spokesman on all matters of import.

Big enough to muscle past an offensive tackle with a "swim" or "rip" move. Big enough to carry the defensive unit with the now-occasional stretch of dominating play. Big enough to hoist up a youngster wearing a Giants baseball cap here among a partisan New England Patriots crowd after the kid begs for an autograph and a photo opportunity and suddenly experiences an up-close-and-personal visit with his hero.

	Can Tiki Barber and the Giants duplicate their super 2000 season?

Plenty big enough on this day, and one suspects most days at training camp, to tote around a boulder-sized dose of indignity.

This is a New York Giants team that, despite its NFC championship of a year ago, enters 2001 as a group whose heritage is less respected than that of, say, the Kingston Trio. And led by the candid Strahan, who fairly bristles at the notion the Giants' berth in Super Bowl XXXV was an aberration along the lines of the Atlanta Falcons' appearance in the 1998 title game, it is a team growing very weary of the legion of skeptics.

In short, it wasn't enough for the Giants to prove the rest of the football world wrong in 2000. A year later, their new task is to prove 2000 wasn't a fluke.

"I hate that word, because it's kind of (demeaning), not just to us, but to any team that all of the so-called experts didn't think was that good," said Strahan, after the Wednesday morning session of the combined practices with the Patriots. "You know, the experts don't like to be wrong. And, let's face it, they were wrong when it came to us. But instead of saying, 'OK, you guys showed us,' it's like, 'Oh, no, now you have to show us again.' So I guess we will."

A relatively nondescript team, the Giants were flying well below the radar last season, and below their own expectations as well, when coach Jim Fassel issued his now-famous "guarantee" that the club would qualify for the playoffs. The team exceeded even Fassel's most grandiose expectations in advancing to its first Super Bowl in a decade. The typically jingoistic New York media made the coach and his team the toast of Broadway, and rightly so, given their performance in the clutch.

Little wonder Giants players are miffed that some observers now feel they will be toast, period.

Certainly the Giants are not, despite the glitz and glamour their name and lineage entails, a flashy outfit. They are more a meat-and-potatoes team, one whose offense seems to play base-to-base (to utilize a baseball analogy), and whose defense is far better than advertised. The Giants tend to be an incremental team, one that moves in spasms, a club that, given the opportunity, would always choose the bludgeon over the stiletto.

But anyone who underestimates them, at least based on Wednesday's workouts here, is apt to die a slow death.

One New York veteran offensive player joked the Giants "tend to just bore our way to wins sometimes," but the team demonstrated last season that ennui isn't always such a terrible thing. Beyond the mind-boggling 41-0 rout of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship contest, the Giants won six other games by double-digit margins last year, but no one seemed to notice. A few players seemed legitimately surprised when reminded (or informed) that the offense ranked in the top half of the league statistically last season.

The more celebrated defense, orchestrated by cagey coordinator John Fox, was No. 5 and could be, with the free agency acquisition of end Kenny Holmes and the elevation of tackle Cornelius Griffin to the starting lineup, even better in 2001. The biggest shortcoming remains a lack of speed at the cornerback spot, but rookies Will Allen and William Peterson could provide a physical presence and improved single-man coverage in the future. The pressure exerted by a front four that should be among the NFL's best will help compensate for the secondary's absence of quickness.

In most of the line drills Wednesday, it was the Giants who held an advantage, and the defense moved to the ball with a little more burst. There is a palpable sense of unfinished business and it has promulgated a businesslike approach to readying for the season ahead. You look at the Giants and, like a landscape on canvas, the picture hasn't seemed to change much, the players pointing out that a new picture wasn't necessary anyway.

	“	(We) didn't have to go into some wholesale rebuilding thing, not given where we were at last year. A lot of young guys got a taste of success last season, and they're hungry again. ”
		— Lomas Brown, Giants tackle

"I think people kind of look at this team as not making a lot of flashy moves," said offensive tackle Lomas Brown. "But we didn't have to do a whole lot either, didn't have to go into some wholesale rebuilding thing, not given where we were at last year. A lot of young guys got a taste of success last season, and they're hungry again."

Said quarterback Kerry Collins: "We might not seem excited, but we are, man. The way last year ended, for some of us, took away from what we accomplished. Nah, we're pumped up about going out and getting back at it again. We're just not real emotional about it, that's all."

In fact, if you want to get a rise from the Giants, wave the name of the Eagles in front of New York players' noses -- the upstart gang from Philly suddenly the chic pick of the NFL pundits to claim an NFC East crown this year -- and it is akin to prodding a pent-up bull with a red flag.

Yeah, the Giants know what everyone is saying about them and what the prognostications are for the 2001 season. They carry their own expectations, though, a little higher. And on much broader shoulders than people suspect.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.