Antonio Pierce is two years removed from his NFL playing days. He is in the early stages of a promising broadcasting career, paid to provide objective analysis on all things football.

He has moved on with his life. But some flames, like the ones that burn from the angriest rivalry in pro sports, do not extinguish easily. So, when the former Giants linebacker was approached this week to talk about his former team's Week 3 matchup, this was how the conversation started:

Reporter: “I want to talk to you about the Eagles-Giants rivalry.”

Pierce: "Oh man. (Bleep) damn Eagles. (Bleep) them. Hate you. Hate you, man! For real!"

The mere mention of that football team down the Turnpike apparently had ruined his night. It’s crazy for a retired player to get that worked up. But it’s a good crazy. It’s a refreshing crazy. It’s a crazy professional sports so desperately needs.

We long ago entered the Bro Hug Era in sports, one in which players on opposing teams will text message each other while riding the bus to games, in which players on the Miami Heat hang out at a nightclub with their counterparts from the Dallas Mavericks after the latter wins the NBA Finals.

It is a nauseating level of chumminess. But not the Giants and the Eagles, and this is not a media-created hatred. It’s not limited to the fans, either, a passion created in the stands where the players just play along.

This has deep roots in the opposing locker rooms. It’s a special kind of hate that has been passed on from veteran players to rookies, one that has continued through dramatic changes in personnel — including, most recently, a key defection from one team to the other.

Steve Smith, as mild mannered an NFL player as you’ll find, charged into an offseason Twitter trash-talk session with the Eagles with a photo. It showed him during the Giants’ Super Bowl XLII celebration, superimposed with an empty Eagles trophy case.

Then he stunned the Giants and signed with the other side two months later. “I used to hate the Eagles,” he said. “Now I don’t like the Giants.”

Smith has a tangible reason: The Giants did not re-sign him in the offseason. But this is a much more visceral hate for most. It more closely resembles a college rivalry, something ingrained in people. Why do Alabama fans hate Auburn? Duh. Because it’s Auburn!

Mark Herzlich grew up outside Philadelphia. He remembers going to a Giants-Eagles game when he was 10 and seeing a Giants fan beaten to a pulp in the stands. His father, for the record, was a Giants fan.

“But he was smart,” Herzlich said. “He brought his family, he wasn’t going to wear his jersey.

“You’re not just playing for this one win or to keep up in the division,” the reserve linebacker said. “You’re playing to beat the Eagles. You want to beat the guys in green. And that’s a cool thing.”

There’s too much bad blood to mention everything, but fans know the highlights. Michael Strahan trash-talked at Eagles tackle Jon Runyan for years. Eagles safety Brian Dawkins laid out Giants wide receiver Ike Hilliard, a vicious hit that ended his season in 2002. Eagles fullback Stephen Spach stretched Pierce’s body while making a play, ripping the linebacker’s ankle ligaments.

The Eagles, in 2005, showed footage of Jay Feely missing three field goals in Seattle before the kicker lined up an attempt in overtime. Feely made the kick. Giants CEO John Mara complained to the league. Last year, tackle Chris Canty ripped Eagles guard Todd Herremans for “dirty blocks.”

Even Wednesday, Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin fired a shot at Giants safety Antrel Rolle for his comments that he could cover teammate DeSean Jackson one-on-one.

“When you talk, you’re either insecure or scared,” Maclin told reporters. “And he’s talking.”

But it’s not just chatter fueling this. It helps — or, depending on your perspective, hurts — that one always seems to stamp out the other’s chances. Lately, it’s been the Eagles doing all the stamping, from the fourth-quarter Meadowlands meltdown last season that kept the Giants from the playoffs to the postseason beating following the Giants’ post-Super Bowl season.

The Eagles have won six straight in the series. Pierce believes those losses have cost him and his teammates some serious hardware.

“Honestly, I feel five years here they cost me a ring and a championship game,” he said. “The one year after we won the Super Bowl, I felt we should have won the Super Bowl again and they knocked us off. So it’s a team that’s been a thorn when I played here.

“You saw what they did last year. Giants had both games won, and they came back.”

For just a moment, Pierce transformed into his new life as a broadcaster, dropping a don't-leave-your-seat cliché. But then the Giant in him re-emerged. Retirement? Not from this rivalry.



"I've never disliked a team or a city or the fans more than I disliked Philadelphia," Pierce said. "That's how it was."

The feeling is mutual. And, given the current chummy state of pro sports, beautiful.

Staff writer Zach Berman contributed to this column.

Steve Politi: spoliti@starledger.com; Twitter.com/StevePoliti

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