GLENDALE, Ariz. — Funny how, when you step back and think about it, Michael Strahan easily could have missed all this. Amidst the glitz and glamour of Super Bowl week and the confidence in his team pulling off an upset for the ages, it’s easy to forget that Strahan, the unquestioned leader and most recognizable face of the Giants’ franchise, nearly stepped aside before the season started. In other words, like Tiki Barber, he almost ­wasn’t around for all the fun.

Being selfish after having enjoyed Strahan’s company for the entire week in ­Arizona, I can say I’m glad he stuck it out. But I’m quite certain my sentiments pale in comparison to his — 15 years in the league, and finally he’s a Super Bowl champion.  

“This is going to take a couple of days before this sets in,” Strahan said after the 17-14 triumph over the record-setting Patriots. “I don’t even know what to say. This team, this season, where we started, where we ended. Totally unexpected. Five weeks ago I couldn’t have told you this, when we started the playoffs, that we’d be here.”

At the beginning of Eli Manning’s clutch final drive, Strahan went from one teammate to another, telling them the final score would be 17-14, asking them to repeat it aloud because he wanted them to believe. One more drive, one more touchdown, and a world championship would be theirs.

The play late in the game in which Manning miraculously escaped a sack and threw for a key first down to a leaping David Tyree admittedly took a few years off his life.

Michael Strahan

Strahan said he finally turned off his TV for the week when he saw his friend, Fox analyst Howie Long, talking about how the Giants couldn’t stay with New England.

“Even when my parents told me we were going to win, I didn’t know if I believed them either,” he added. “But I believed in the guys and I believed in all the work we put in and the confidence we had.”

But back in August, Strahan was close, so very close, to calling it a career. Concerned he didn’t want his body in two-a-day practices if his mind was somewhere else, he skipped all of training camp and the preseason while mulling retirement and didn’t report to the team until just before the start of the regular season. But once things got rolling, he didn’t play like a man contemplating the end of a storied career as the NFL’s active leader in sacks. The 36-year-old Strahan finished the season with nine sacks and anchored a defensive line that held opponents to 97.7 yards per game rushing. In the playoffs, he was even better, recording 21 tackles, two sacks, seven QB hurries and a forced fumble in four games. 

“Michael Strahan is a football player, period,” Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said in the week leading up to the big game. “He loves the game. He has great excitement and exuberance for any aspect of it. You talk about a guy who enjoys the game, enjoys his teammates, enjoys the practices, that’s Michael. You couldn’t do this for as long as this guy has done it, at the Pro Bowl level that he’s done it, if you didn’t have great love for the game, great love for your teammates, and also excitement and enjoyment in the everyday activities that a professional football player has to go through. That’s not easy for everyone to understand.”

The mellowing of Coughlin, who faced a near mutiny because of his dictator-like qualities early in his stint with the Giants, was a big factor in keeping Strahan on board. There’s no question Coughlin still has his strict set of rules, but he has softened a bit, allowing the players in, and the respectful relationship he formed with his future Hall of Fame defensive end after a couple of tenuous seasons cannot be understated.

Strahan returned with the idea of enjoying himself more than ever this season, and with how often he smiled during Super Bowl week and joked with his teammates — on and off camera — consider it a mission accomplished and then some.

“I came in here every day, laughing and smiling, slapping Coughlin around,” Strahan said. “I’m doing things to him that he’s not really used to players doing. Because I really don’t have anything to lose. What are they going to do, fire me? No. I’m having fun. This is the most fun I’ve ever had as a player.”

That much was obvious. During sessions with the media last week, he joked about selling advertising in the much-publicized gap between his two front teeth and said he wasn’t interested in the hoopla and parties raging around Phoenix because, if he couldn’t be there, how good could they really be, anyway?

But when the week of hype and media obligations was over and it came time to get down to business, Strahan and the Giants were even better than they were in front of the microphones.

New York held the previously unbeaten Patriots to 14 points and only 274 total yards, battering Tom Brady with a vicious consistency that was, along with Manning’s rally, the major story line of the game. The protection Brady was spoiled with all season leaked like a sieve against the hard-charging Giants, who generated five sacks and rarely allowed Brady to step into a throw. Strahan said the goal was to punch the Patriots in the mouth and make them do something out of the ordinary, and he could sense their frustration.

“No quarterback likes to be on his back every time he throws the ball,” said Strahan, who longed for a shower but seemed to be in no hurry to leave the postgame interview tent. “We all respect the Patriots and we all really respect Tom Brady, but it was our time. We didn’t want to make this another feel-good story for the Patriots, make this another dynasty story. We want to start our own dynasty. ...

“(In the first matchup in Week 17) they scored 38 points, but you could tell they were uncomfortable in that game. I think we brought a level of physicality that they had not seen before. … You couldn’t write this story any better.”

The same could be said for Strahan, who could choose to ride off into the sunset on top of the NFL world, much like John Elway and Jerome Bettis did before him. Or he could return for a 16th season, stretch out his career lead in sacks and attempt a repeat.

“I’m not thinking about that right now,” Strahan shot back with his ever-present grin. “I’m thinking about the parade that moved from Boston to New York City; I’m thinking about the beaches in California and spending time with my kids.”

After he nearly let retirement get in the way of his first-ever Lombardi Trophy, expect the most famous gap-toothed smile this side of David Letterman to last awhile. As it should.

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