Giants defensive end Michael Strahan still isn’t saying whether he’ll retire or return for another season of football.

His teammate, linebacker Antonio Pierce, thinks Strahan won’t be back.  “My inside tells me that Strahan played his last game with the as a champion and that’s not a bad way to go out,” Pierce told WFAN on Tuesday (via the New York Post). 

“I look at it like the desire players have to be a champion,” Pierce said. “The guy is a great player, made tons of money and is now a champion.

“He has been in this league 15 years and his credentials speak for themselves.  The only thing he would come back for now is to keep living and to build on top of that.

“Fifteen years in this business is tough and to walk away healthy after last season is all you can ask.”

But Pierce hinted that the Giants could change Michael’s mind by parking a big pile of money on his front porch.  “Maybe a $2 million signing bonus or something,” Pierce said.

Whoa, Antonio.  Only $2 million?  Not with a salary cap that’s at $116 million and climbing by about $7 million or so each season.  We think that Strahan will want $10 million or more in hand to return for another season, and a commitment that he won’t have to pay back any of the signing bonus money if he decides to retire at any time during the multi-year deal that the team surely would use to spread out the cap impact of such a contract.

 Though Strahan doesn’t need the money, there’s undoubtedly a number from which he wouldn’t walk away.

Actually, we’re rooting for him not to play, since it means that he’ll end up on television.  He was excellent during a Tuesday appearance on FOX & Friends — relaxed, natural, funny, likeable.  Whether it’s this year, next year, or 2010, Strahan is destined to do very well after he calls it quits.