Michael Strahan profiled on NFL Network on Tuesday

Giants fans nostalgic for happier times are encouraged to watch "A Football Life" on the NFL Network on Tuesday as the series profiles a TV chat show host who in a previous life tackled football players for a living.

Michael Strahan is in fine Strahan form throughout, demonstrating the charisma that made him a world-class quote as a player and later landed him on "Live with Kelly and Michael."

Perhaps the most newsworthy revelation: Strahan admitting bitterness about how the sack of Brett Favre that gave him the single-season record of 22½ in 2001-02 has been discounted because Favre appeared to take a dive.

Strahan's message to doubters: "If you don't like it, then break it."

He also revisits his early relationship with Giants coach Tom Coughlin, saying, "I hated him. And when I say 'hate,' I don't mean 'hate' as [if] I'm just saying 'hate' as a loose word. No, I mean I absolutely hated the man."

The most poignant story, which I won't spoil here, concerns a bicycle he bought when he was 9.

The show avoids darker issues in Strahan's past, including from his personal life and his mercurial relationship with the media. But it is a quick, entertaining look that should (briefly) lift the spirits of Giants fans in a dispiriting season.