New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan is upset with how the team has treated him -- and with how the media has portrayed him -- on the heels of the comments he made on Saturday.

"They're saying, 'He turned down $17 million, that greedy son of a gun,' " Strahan told Newsday on Monday. "I'm not dumb enough to turn that down. I am not that stupid. But those anonymous Giants sources are playing me to the public as a greedy player."

After breaking off talks with the Giants, Strahan said over the weekend that he does not expect to be a Giant in 2003. But Monday night he told Newsday he only was carrying the Giants' actions to what he believed was a logical conclusion.

Strahan, who set the NFL season sack record last season with 22½, said he was willing in February to sign a seven-year contract worth about $58 million, with a $17-million bonus, but he objected to the Giants' desire to pay him $10 million now and $7 million next March to ease the cap burden.

It is extremely unlikely the team would have cut him before paying the $7 million, but he did not want to take that chance.

"They say, 'We did the same with (Jason) Sehorn and Tiki (Barber) and you have to go by our word,' " Strahan told Newsday. "No one's word means anything in this business... In football the only thing you're guaranteed is your bonus."

Strahan told Newsday he would have negotiated, but that the Giants made only one offer before reaching the March 1 cap deadline by other means. Since then, they have not aggressively attempted to re-sign him, thus keeping cap space open for 2003 and beyond, but risking the loss of their best player after the coming season and making it almost impossible to sign free agents now.

"I want to play in New York," he told the newspaper. "But when one contract is put on the table and that contract is taken off the table, then to not even be working toward a deal, you told me my fate, and the excuse is the cap."

He even suggested to Newsday that some in the organization privately were unhappy with his sack total, knowing how much money it would cost after the season. Would he be willing to re-sign with the Giants after 2002? "They would be one of 32 teams, no more, no less," Strahan told the newspaper.

Strahan plans to be on hand for the off-season conditioning program, which begins Monday.

"They are paying me great money, why wouldn't I?" Strahan, who is set to earn about $8 million in the last year of a $32-million deal, told Newsday. "I'll give them the best I've got. They have always gotten it."