At one point Thursday, Strahan and Manning shared the stage with Parcells, Coughlin, Taylor, Simms and Carson. All seven won at least one Super Bowl with the Giants, while Strahan, Manning, Taylor, Simms and Carson each spent their entire playing careers with the team.

Taylor, considered by many to be the greatest defensive player in NFL history, seemed downright delighted to be reunited with his former teammates, often chiming in with jokes or listening from the literal edge of his chair.

He thanked God for giving him his natural football talent and Parcells for getting the most out of it.

“When I signed with the Giants, I considered myself a good player. I remember, during the practices and things like that, Bill Parcells came to me,” Taylor said Thursday.

“He wanted to meet with all the big names on the team, and he asked me to come to the meeting. I said, ‘The hell, I’m going to a meeting? I’m a rookie.’ He said, ‘Because you’ve shown another side of football.’ Because he said that, I tried to show another side of football. I’m gonna hustle, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that, and I tried to make a difference.”

The hard-hitting, hard-partying Taylor led a ferocious pass rush known as the “Crunch Bunch.”

He and Carson were defensive stars on the 1986 Giants team that won Super Bowl XXI — game in which Simms won MVP after completing 22-of-25 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns against the Broncos.

“All I know is Lawrence would leave the locker room in some leather outfit after practice,” Simms said Thursday. I’d just go, ‘Damn, that’s ugly.’ He would leave, and the next morning … the door would fly open at one minute till 9. Lawrence would stand there … and I would look at him and go, ‘Rough night?’ And he would say, ‘You just can’t believe it.’ ”

Taylor and Simms won another Super Bowl after the 1990 season, though the latter missed that victory over the Bills due to a broken foot.

Taylor retired with 132.5 sacks, which ranked first in Giants history until Strahan passed him and finished with 141.5.

On Thursday, that duo debated who was the true sack king, considering the stat did not exist during Taylor’s rookie season in 1981. Taylor also pointed out that he missed games when he was suspended, to which Strahan replied, “I didn’t tell you to get suspended.”

Strahan made his NFL debut in 1993, which was Taylor’s final season. Strahan then overlapped later in his career with Tuck, who totaled four sacks in the Giants’ Super Bowl victories against New England after the 2007 and 2011 seasons.

Tuck on Thursday joked that he and fellow pass rusher Osi Umenyiora often tried to push Strahan into retirement to free up his defensive end spot. Ultimately, though, Tuck had nothing but love for his former mentor.

“He allowed me to just watch him. I don’t think a lot of these younger players do enough of that,” Tuck said.

“He talked about what LT meant to him, what Carl Banks meant to him, and that’s just been passed down in what it means to be a Giant. As I sit on this stage and I’m seeing all the Giants, that’s what it’s always been about.”

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