"THIS ain't tennis!" declared Bermuda's Antonio Pierce ahead of the showdown between his New York Giants and the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Pierce and his fellow linebacker, the future Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, both know that things may get a little dirty on Sunday in the NFL's biggest game of the year.

And you can bet Pierce and all the other players on the Giants defence will target Patriots mercurial quarterback Tom Brady's ankle in the hopes of knocking him out of the game. Pierce may not come right out and say that but you know it will be on their minds ¿ knock Brady out and they are halfway home.

"Every team is dirty,'' Pierce said. "We're dirty. It's a dirty game. It's nasty. This ain't tennis!

"We're not out there trying to hurt one another. But it is dirty, it is nasty. Everybody's trying to make a play that'll tick the other person off. I hope we do that, too.''

As for Brady, who was spotted wearing a boot on his foot in the lead-up to Sunday's game in Arizona, Pierce said: "I don't believe he's hurt at all. If the guy had a sleeve on, crutches and cast, I might consider it. Tom Brady is one of the best quarterbacks we've faced this year, and that's what I expect to see.''

The whole issue of dirty play is a continuation from when the Giants played Green Bay and the Packers defensive end Aaron Kampman accused centre Shaun O'Hara of skirting the rules of football decency. And then Osi Umenyiora recently made some borderline statements on HBO about the unorthodox techniques of New England left tackle Matt Light displayed in their first go-around a month ago.

Pierce's fellow linebacker Strahan chipped in and said: "Everybody's so worried about who's dirty. I'll be honest with you, if you tick me off, I will stomp on your neck, too.

"Everybody does it. We're punching, we're clawing, jumping onto piles grabbing each other God knows where. It's the game of football. I love it when I read, "Oh, he's a dirty player.' To be honest, we're all dirty. You gotta be a little insane to do what we do. It's the nature of the beast.''

Pierce is also getting a little sick and tired hearing about the so called feel-good story surrounding the Patriots, who, if they win, will be the second team in NFL history to have a perfect Super Bowl season ¿ the first were the Miami Dolphins in 1972.

"You hear everyone talking about how we're this 'feel-good story.' I don't know what the hell a feel-good story means," Pierce said. "The Giants are a feel-good story for New York? No.

"In our heads, we felt that we could be here. Our general manager made that statement early in training camp. I said that. Other guys said that. Now we're there and it's funny. We're supposed to feel good?

"I don't know why anybody would think we'd be satisfied with this. We weren't satisfied with being a winning team this year. We weren't satisfied with getting to the playoffs. We weren't satisfied winning one playoff game. We won't be satisfied until the final picture happens.

"We'll probably be the biggest underdogs in Super Bowl history if we win. But that's OK. We've come to terms with it. In the 2007 season, that's what we've dealt with. We've been called the underdog overachievers.

"Well, if that's what they want to call us, that's fine. But I've got a lot of calls on my phone congratulating me for moving on from people in the National Football League that are watching us now."

While acknowledging the Patriots superb offence lead by Brady, Pierce thinks the Giants' defense doesn't have to be perfect to stop the Patriots in their pursuit of perfection. But it has to be pretty close.

"You just have to be consistent for 60 minutes. You have to play ¿ it ain't perfect ball ¿ but you have to play as disciplined as you can," Pierce said.

"You have to (bring pressure) for 60 straight minutes. We just have to be consistent with it."

Pierce knows one of the keys to bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to New York lies in limiting Tom Brady's ability to pick apart the defence. It means Big Blue has to be a big nuisance to Brady on Sunday.

Brady lit up the Giants for 356 passing yards and two touchdowns in the Patriots' 38-35 win in Week 17. The Patriots' Mr. Perfect completed 32 of 42 passes, including going 8-for-12 for 130 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

The Giants held a 12-point lead in the second half, but saw it slip away when Brady started slinging the ball with ease. Pierce knows the piercing blow came when Brady hooked up with Randy Moss for a 65-yard score to put the Patriots up 31-28 early in the fourth quarter.

The Giants sacked Brady once and hit him eight times, but it didn't derail the quarterback from helping the Pats clinch a 16-0 regular season.

"We're going into a game where everybody wants to talk about the Patriots," said Pierce, who has led the resurgence of a Giants' defence that gave up 80 points in the first two weeks ¿ losses to the Cowboys and Packers, respectively. "Well, it's about the Giants to me. That's what we're focused on, the New York Giants."

Pierce recognises that Brady, who has led the Pats to three Super Bowls, has the experience and pocket smarts to victimise the Giants.

"The guy is a good quarterback, he is going to make throws, he is going to make plays and you can't do anything about it," Pierce said.

But forget all the platitudes for the Pats' seemingly perfect quarterback. Pierce ¿ who said last month that Brady "walked around like he's Prince Charles, like he's the Golden Boy" ¿ is licking his chops for another chance to ruin the 18-0 Patriots' bid at history.

"You respect what they've done in the past but this is another game, this is the future," Pierce said. "If they don't win the Super Bowl ¿ what does it mean? It means nothing."

The Bermudian knows that many other teams in the NFL would like to be standing where the Giants are.

"There are probably 12-15 teams in the NFC that thought they should be in the position that we're in," he said. "The Cowboys, the Packers, the Bucs. But they're not here. Only the New York Giants are standing here."

And Pierce is determined not to let this Super Bowl chance slip away.

"Capture the moment," Pierce said. "Don't let it slip away. I've been in situations several times personally and team-wise where I felt like things slipped through my fingertips. And I've talked to (Michael) Strahan and the guys that were there in 2000. You don't want to let this opportunity slip away.

"It's gratifying to be here, but I'm not satisfied yet. I want to bring home the Lombardi Trophy and have a parade in New York."

While the Giants have officially been designated as the "road" team Pierce will be feeling right at home since he attended the University of Arizona.

And he remembers draft day as well.

Every time a linebacker was selected, Pierce entered the name in his notebook, fully expecting to jot himself in at some point of the two-day process.

When the draft was over, the only thing Pierce had was about 30 names' worth of motivation.

"I was highly disappointed," said Pierce. "Once my name didn't go up, I kept that list."

He copied the names onto another sheet of paper that he still has in his New York residence.

And every time one of those linebackers finished his NFL career, Pierce drew a thin line through his name. There are six still standing.

"After that first year, I wanted to see who made it," Pierce said. "I kept stats on them. As the seasons went by, I just started crossing names off. Then I started looking at how they did in their career. Who had the most success? Who put up numbers, and winning teams and things like that?"

Pierce, who signed as a free agent with Washington and played four years there before signing a six-year, $26 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Giants, has 605 tackles, seven interceptions and 6 1/2 sacks in his career.

"I've had players like him before, that start out being guys people say can't make it," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said of Pierce. "And they just keep working and outwork people."

Pierce, 29, played in all 23 games his two college seasons at Arizona, although, much to his dismay, he did not move to middle linebacker until he hit the NFL.

"At Arizona, we played a defense where the middle linebacker got a lot of exposure," Pierce said. "My junior year, we decided to move Lance Briggs to that spot, which I thought I was going to get to play.

"Briggs was all-Pac-10 and ended up being drafted, but I felt a little cheated the way things worked out. I felt I should have had the opportunity. I felt I played good enough to deserve the opportunity.

"It didn't work out, but I used it as motivation."

Pierce became an NFL starter in his last season in Washington, 2004, using that as a springboard to sign with New York.

"My rookie year, I got a chance to start a couple of games and play a little bit," he said. "Then I went on special teams because we brought in a lot of veterans, (Jeremiah) Trotter and Jesse Armstead.

"I got an opportunity my last year (in Washington), and I wanted to make a name for myself," Pierce said.

"What better place than New York?"

He refused to sit after suffering an ankle injury late this season. Despite missing the week of practice, Pierce started against Philadelphia and broke up a fourth-down pass to seal a 16-13 victory December 9.

"It's hard to look your teammates in the eye and tell them you are not playing," Pierce said.

Pierce, 6-foot-1 and 238 pounds, made the 2006 Pro Bowl but considers this season his most meaningful.

"This is what you strive for, to be a champion," Pierce said. "This week and this upcoming game is what I've been waiting for my whole life."

Told he has surpassed all of the linebackers taken in the 2001 draft, he smiled.

"I'm not finished," he said.