NEW YORK-- Several New York Giants said today that they are satisfied with the amount of respect they have received from the fans and media since their Super Bowl victory, marking the first time in history a Super Bowl champion has felt appropriately respected.

“I am perfectly satisfied with the level of respect we’re receiving,” said receiver Plaxico Burress. “Many folks are picking us to win our division, while others are understandably picking other teams. Football is highly unpredictable and there are new contenders every season. Still, I’d say that we’ve been treated rather well since our Super Bowl win. Thanks, everybody.”

Running back Brandon Jacobs, who went into last season with a chip on his shoulder, says he is carrying no such chip this year, and neither are his teammates.

“I don’t have a chip on my shoulder and neither do my teammates,” Jacobs said. “How could we? We’re Super Bowl champs and we got a parade, the cover of Sports Illustrated, our very own championship DVD and an off-season full of awards and praise. Of course, not everybody thinks we’re going to repeat, and why should they? If you picked the previous year’s winner every year, you would be wrong almost 100 percent of the time. And except for the New York Post, people in the media hate being wrong.”

On the first day of training camp, somebody posted an article from ESPN the Magazine which doubted that the Giants could repeat as Super Bowl champs and, in fact, picked them to finish second in their own division. Giants players called the article “reasonable.”

“I thought it was a fair assessment,” said linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka. “The author outlined our strengths and weaknesses and determined, based on the data, that we were not the favorites to win this year. I thought it was a well presented argument, though I respectfully disagree with it. I believe we can win it all again this year, or at least win the division. After all, we’re bringing back most of the guys who helped us…finish second last year.”

Some players actually saw the article as a positive take on the Giants.

“Hey, this is nice,” said running back Ahmad Bradshaw. “He says here that ‘the Giants win over the Patriots was as inspirational as it was impressive.’ And then he mentions my name! Cool! Man, I can’t believe all the positive press we’re getting from winning the Super Bowl. Okay, here he says we probably won’t be good enough to repeat. That’s cool. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion.”

So what will the Giants use for motivation this season? It’s simple: the desire to win a second straight Super Bowl.

“Our motivation is to win. It’s simple as that,” said Burress. “We don’t need to pretend we’re being disrespected to get us fired up. We’re just going to go out there and compete. Of course, if we do win again this year, we’ll probably have to start playing the disrespect card for motivation, because there’s no reason to even try after two Super Bowls.”

Copyright 2008, The Brushback - Do not reprint without permission. This article is satire and is not intended as actual news.