And if they can't locate any actual evidence of disrespect, well, then they will just make it up and convince themselves it's real.

The New York Giants haven't needed to use their imagination this summer to invent detractors who don't think they have any shot of defending their Super Bowl crown. The newspapers, talk shows and preseason magazines are loaded with them.

All of which is sweet, sweet music to the Giants' ears. One of the biggest obstacles to defending a title is the letdown that often follows. But when you have everybody and his brother telling you that your February victory over the New England Patriots was a fluke, when you have everybody telling you that your fearsome pass rush isn't going to be so fearsome now that Michael Strahan has retired, or that Eli Manning won't be able to match his impressive '07 playoff performance, that letdown should be a little easier to avoid.

"We've definitely got a chip on our shoulders," said defensive lineman Justin Tuck, who had 10 of the Giants' league-best 53 quarterback sacks last season, and two of their five against Tom Brady and the Patriots in that epic, 17-14 Super Bowl win. "You read the papers. [They say] we have no chance, even in the NFC.

"But it really doesn't matter what people say. As long as the 53 guys we go into the season with believe in ourselves and we go out there and play Giants football, we'll be fine. I know a lot of people are saying, 'There's no Michael [Strahan], no [Jeremy] Shockey, no Gibril [Wilson], no Kawika [Mitchell]. But we've got guys who stepped in last year and played a lot. They will continue to do that, and I feel confident in our coaching staff and the people we have around here to get it done."

So does Giants general manager Jerry Reese, although he understands why many people on the outside looking in might not share his optimism.

"Face it, we're not a sexy team," Reese said. "We had one Pro Bowler last year. Osi [Umenyiora, defensive end] was our only Pro Bowler. So we're not sexy. We don't have all the big names and that kind of stuff.

"We're kind of a blue-collar team. And I think it does put a little bit of a chip on our shoulder to hear people say, 'You know what? [Last year] was a fairy tale. It'll never happen again.' Well, these guys want to prove that it can."

The Giants won the Super Bowl by getting hot at exactly the right time. They were just 4-4 in their final eight regular-season games, including ugly losses to Minnesota (41-17) and Washington (22-10). In those two games, Manning completed just 38.2 percent of his passes, averaged 4.48 yards per attempt and threw four interceptions.

But an impressive showing in a three-point loss to the Patriots in their final regular-season game seemed to give the Giants a Red Bull kick heading into the playoffs. They went on the road and beat the Bucs by 10, the NFC East champion Cowboys by four and the Packers by three in overtime in frigid Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game before short-circuiting the Patriots' 19-0 quest in the Arizona desert.

Manning, who had thrown 20 interceptions and had a 56.1 completion percentage in the regular season, threw just one interception in 119 playoff attempts.

Their fearsome pass rush, led by Strahan, Tuck and Umenyiora, dominated the Patriots' vaunted offensive line in the Super Bowl.

The free-agent departures of Wilson and Mitchell should have a minimal effect on the Giants' defense. They also should be able to survive the loss of Shockey, who was traded to New Orleans last month.

But replacing Strahan, who retired this spring, is a different story. He, Umenyiora and Tuck, a defensive end who moved inside to tackle in the Giants' nickel package, combined for 32 sacks last season, which was more than any pass-rushing trio in the league.

"We're definitely going to miss him,'' said Umenyiora, who had a career-high 13 sacks last season, six of which came in a 16-3, Week 4 win over the Eagles. "Whenever you take a Hall of Famer out of your defense, it's going to affect you tremendously. He was a great player. I don't know if anybody is going to be able to step up the way he played. We have good football players, but we're talking about Michael Strahan here.''

Tuck, an '05 third-round pick who had just one sack in his first two seasons with the Giants, benefited enormously last year from playing inside in the nickel flanked by Umenyiora and Strahan.

"Having those two guys on the outside was tremendously important," admitted Tuck. "It was basically pick your poison. You had three guys that can get after the quarterback. Obviously, we didn't sack him every time. But just having that threat, that capability, gets a quarterback off his timing, off his rhythm.''

The value of the Giants' pass rush never was more evident than in their Super Bowl win, when they made Brady's life miserable, sacking him five times and forcing him to hurry his throws the whole game.

"You could tell the week of the Super Bowl how we felt,'' said Umenyiora. "We felt we could beat that football team. We felt we could get to Brady. When we played them [in Week 17], we hit him 17 times. They had a very good offensive line. But we felt we were a better defensive line. So we just went out there and tried to do what we do."

With Strahan gone, Tuck, who rotated on the outside with Strahan and Umenyiora in the Giants' base defense, will start at left end. On passing downs, he again is expected to move inside to tackle, with versatile strongside linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka moving up and filling the left end spot.

Kiwanuka, the Giants' 2006 first-round pick, spent his rookie season as a defensive end before being moved to SAM last year. He had four sacks as a rookie and another 4 1/2 last year before breaking his leg in November and missing the final six regular-season games and all of the playoffs.

"We still have a lot of people who can rush the passer,'' Umenyiora said. "You take Michael out of the equation, obviously you're losing a great player. But I think [Kiwanuka] can rush the passer. So can [Dave] Tollefson. We have some guys who can step in there and do a good job.

"We're going to try and duplicate the same thing we had last year. It would be almost impossible to think we're going to have three guys with double-digit sacks again. But we're going to try to do it.'' *