Q. There was a lot of hype last week about the game between the Cowboys and Giants.  Doesn't seem to be as much of that this week.  Is that because of the magnitude of the game that the actions speak louder than the words?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  I think a little bit of both.  I think of course you talk about the Cowboys and the Giants, you're talking about a long history, a lot of games being played.  For some guys like Strahan 30­plus games against the Cowboys.  It gets personal after a while.  I think with Green Bay it's a mutual respect.

        To get to this point where you're the final two in the NFC says a lot about your team and you don't need to talk about it.  I think all our actions and everything we want to say this week will be shown on film.

Q.  Speaking of history, it seems like with Lambeau Field, Brett Favre, NFC Championship game, cold weather, this kind of has instant classic written all over it.  Are you excited about the cold and just kind of the atmosphere?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  I'm excited just about the opportunity to be in the Conference Championship.  That's hard to do alone.  Of course you'll look at what everybody picked at the beginning of the season.  Nobody picked us to be in the playoffs, even .500.  For our team, today is an accomplishment for our whole organization and our coaches.  We just look forward to the opportunity.  It's going to be a great opportunity and we're going to try to take it for the moment.

Q.  Is there sort of a learning part to this?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  No, we're ready to go however.  We can wear flip­flops, we'll wear flip­flops.  We'll do whatever it takes to go on that field.  But you know what, both teams are going to be cold.  Flat out, we know what the temperature is going to be.  You can't fake it.  You can't say you're going to be cold.  Everybody is going to be cold.  It's going to be the team that's more mentally tough and doesn't let that affect them.  At the end of the day they're going to snap that ball and both teams are going to have to tee off.  That's all that matters.

Q.  Is there a feeling of excitement in the locker room?  Or is there a feeling that nobody is satisfied, that you guys aren't done?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  I don't know why any team would be satisfied.  We weren't satisfied with being a winning team this year, we weren't satisfied with getting to the playoffs, we weren't satisfied for winning one playoff game.  We won't be satisfied until the final picture happens hopefully sometime in February if we can get there.

        With that being said, we look forward to that game, we look forward to the opportunity to play this Green Bay team and the tough challenge that Lambeau Field presents to us.

Q.  This team having never made it to the NFC, do you feel your team is destined?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  Never in the NFL.

Q.  No, not to the NFC.

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  But never NFC.  It's always trying is change things.  History, it's good because it always can change on you.  Of course with history, the stories get better and better.  Hopefully with this story that we had in the 2007 season with the New York Giants it can get better and better each week.

 Q.  What do you see in your team as you get ready for the game.  Are you ready?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  Yeah, we're ready.  We're excited.  We look forward to this opportunity.  What better place to go than Lambeau Field where everybody considers football getting started?  They're one of the first teams in the NFL, I mean, long history with Lombardi and Favre and Reggie White and Holmgren, all those guys there.  To be able to go there and play a championship there in the conditions we're going to play in and for the magnitude that it is, it's something we all look forward to and we're going to relish.

Q.  Will it be strange to look across the field and see Ryan Grant on the other side?  Just several weeks back he was on your side.  Kind of bizarre in a big game like this?  Would you love to have him on your team?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  Yeah, of course you'd love to have him, but the fact is he's not a New York Giant anymore.  Our hats go off to Ryan and the success he had this year.  But come Sunday, nobody is friends out there no more.  We can talk about it after the game, and hopefully we're smiling looking over at him.  But if that doesn't work out, whatever.  But with Ryan he's a tough runner, he had a great condition with a lot to prove, and hopefully we can shut him down a little bit this week.

Q.  How do you feel about the fans' focus this week about Brett Favre and his quest to get back to the Super Bowl?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  Everybody talks about the Giants being a feel­good story.  He's a feel­good story.  The thing about it, here's a guy who contemplated coming back for his 17th year.  He leads a very young team to a 13­and­3 record, second best in the NFC.  Like I said, the guy could have been MVP of the league.

        So why wouldn't it be all about him?  He can go out on top hopefully.  For their case they're thinking he can go out on top with a Super Bowl ring.  We're not thinking like that.  We've got a guy here 15 years, Michael Strahan, who I think deserves the Super Bowl ring, and we're going to try everything we can to hopefully get him to the Super Bowl.

Q.  What about Michael and Amani because everybody is talking about Favre, but Strahan says, well, he already has a ring.

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  That's what I'm saying.  I think our focus is of course on our team.  But when you look at Amani and Strahan, 12, 15 years, respectively, with the New York Giants, no Super Bowl ring.  They were there in 2000 and didn't get it.  We have an opportunity right there at our fingertips where we can grab it and hopefully get past this game and more forward.

        I look forward to the opportunity for us all to get one but especially those two guys.  Strahan has the same scenario that Brett Favre had.  And of course a quarterback is going to get a little bit more attention than our defensive end, but at the same time we have a pretty good player and Hall­of­ Famer on our own team.

Q.  He jokes around a lot.

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  No, he only jokes around when he's in the pressroom.  On game day you get the muscle flexing and everything else and the shouting and the cheering from him.  He's ready to go.  He's focused.  I think he's relishing the moment, too.  He's been in this business 15 years and this is only his second Conference Championship game.  He understands the magnitude, and he knows not to take it lightly.  He'll be trying to tell all the younger guys, treat it like another game.  That's how we approach it.

Q.  Tom Coughlin says he gives a lot to thought to his pregame speech Saturday night.  How good a motivational speaker is he, and can a coach really say anything to fire you up at this stage?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  He's been getting better, I can tell you that.  The ones before were kind of like bedtime stories.  There was too much going on.  Half the guys couldn't relate to it.  Now he's getting up to date, to the 2000 era.  He's been doing a lot of things different each and every week.  We've had special people come in there and talk to the people, people like that, and he's had honorary captains.  So he's done things very differently.  Of course he says things to fire guys up.  He knows what buttons to push with certain guys on our team and I think he understands our mentality right now.

Q.  You obviously know the tradition of linebackers.  Harry Carson is going to be on the field as an honorary captain for you guys.  What does that mean to you?

        ANTONIO PIERCE:  I think that's big.  Anytime any of us as linebackers look over there and you Carl Banks every week on the sideline because he's reporting and you have a chance to see Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor and anybody else who shows up, that's important.  Even for me to see Jesse Armstead who's there most of the time.  So when you get those kind of linebackers and you get defensive players and Hall of Famers like the great linebackers of the Giants, you want to go out there and play well and represent them.