NORTH BERGEN, N.J. -- Antrel Rolle can still remember the popping sound of nails being sucked out of the walls as the home he grew up in was disintegrating all around him.

On Aug. 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew and its unforgiving 145 mph winds flattened and shredded seemingly everything in its path in small cities south of Miami, including Rolle's hometown of Homestead, Fla.

Rolle and his family were in their 1,500-square-foot home when Andrew hit. A then-9-year-old Rolle remembers darting from room to room with his father, mother, older brother and sister until they found themselves huddled in the last room still standing in the house.

"You didn't know what to expect, running room to room to room never knowing if this was going to be the last room," Rolle recalled. "There was only one room left standing.

"Then we ran out to the rest of the house and there was no rest of the house. It was gone."

The roof had been ripped off, and the Rolle home was one of 126,000 homes Andrew destroyed.

"It seemed like forever," Rolle said of the terror he and his family experienced. "But it was probably only, maybe, 5-10 minutes. Everything was gone. I think our lawnmower was maybe five blocks away. It was crazy."

This was Rolle's first memory of survival and the importance of teamwork. He and his family were forced to live in a two-bedroom trailer in their backyard for a year and a half until their home was rebuilt. But the Rolles and their neighbors made the best out of a horrendous situation and helped rebuild their neighborhood.

"We made it work," Rolle said. "That was our family motto. We could make anything work. You want to come home after school and play, but your play time was actually nailing down wood."

Nearly two decades later, Rolle still applies that family motto to everything he does, and he's been working hard at building a successful foundation for himself with the New York Giants.

The outspoken safety has played a major role in helping the Giants reach the NFC Championship Game. He has been praised by teammates and former Giants leaders such as Antonio Pierce and Michael Strahan for helping the team turn the season around with his actions on and off the field.

After mentally accepting his primary role of being the team's nickelback to cover slot receivers this season, Rolle has played his best football with the Giants during the team's current four-game winning streak. He helped spark the Giants' run to the conference title game with his plea for teammates to put aches and pains aside, practice and give everything they had prior to the game against the Jets on Christmas Eve. The Giants haven't lost since and are headed to San Francisco, one win away from the Super Bowl.

After a first season with the Giants and coach Tom Coughlin that Rolle concedes was frustrating and full of adjustments, Rolle has matured, become a Coughlin convert and is settling into the role of being a vocal leader.

"He is the [vocal] guy," said Pierce, the team's former defensive captain, now an ESPN analyst. "The thing I like about him is he has swagger. His confidence oozes onto other players. Back in the secondary, the one guy that is constantly getting them going is Antrel Rolle."

'The New York version'

While sitting in his New Jersey living room Thursday night, in front of a balcony that features a stunning ninth-floor view of the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline, Rolle flipped on his flat-screen television and tried to find the Lakers-Heat game.

Here, from left to right, are Antrel Rolle's sister Alexia, his mother, Armelia, his father, Al, and brother Antuan. Courtesy of the Rolle Family

He was rooting for his hometown Heat but chuckled when told how his mother, Armelia, refers to him as "the New York version of Antrel" now.

"I am shocked to see him as this outspoken person, because he has never done this before," Armelia said via phone Thursday. "Never. He would run from the media, and you know, there is just a fraction of [the amount of New York media] in Arizona. I think some of it now comes with maturity."

Since signing a five-year, $37 million deal in 2010, Rolle has created his share of back-page headlines with his comments.

Whether it is suggesting Coughlin could lighten up and create a more fun atmosphere early in his New York tenure or boasting that the Giants could beat the Redskins 99 out of 100 times, Rolle doesn't hold his tongue often.

The safety has become the most vocal Giants player because he'd rather say something and have nothing left unsaid if it helps the team win. It's something, as Pierce said, the Giants sorely needed when things were going bad.

"A lot of times people may have this perception of me, 'Antrel, he's a big mouth, he is always talking,'" Rolle said. "If you go back and you listen to some of the things I say, it is never me just talking. Everything I say, it definitely has some meaning behind it. And nothing I say is to ever ruin or cause any kind of controversy or anything of that sort within the Giants organization."

'The Huxtables'

Armelia says Antrel, the youngest, isn't even the most talkative Rolle in the family. That honor belongs to his older sister, Alexia.

Antrel, 29, comes from a family that believes in speaking the truth at all times.