The defensive tackle is talking more like a street fighter than a football player and warned the 49ers that this weeks match-up will be more like an alley fight than a walk in Candlestick Park.
"Physical, physical, physical," he said when asked what to expect. "This is not going to be a cute football game. It's not going to be for the meek and mild. This is going to be a bloodbath."
The 49ers side— who pride themselves on playing a physical style of ball— didn't take the threat lying down and thinks we'll find out if the visiting team really bleeds Giants blue— lots of it.
"If that's the kind of game this is gonna turn out to be," the 49ers Hall of Fame cornerback Ronnie Lott told the New York Post. "It means it bodes well for the 49ers because they've been in those kind of battles all year long."
"I think they would say, 'Hey, bring it on! You're talking our language.' I don't think they will shy away from something like that," claims Lott.
Just toss in a few show tunes and we can call it West Coast Story.
"They don't try and make it a secret, and they want to beat you up," Canty said. "And we pride ourselves on being a physical football team. Something's got to give, and this football team is preparing itself to be able to put ourselves in a situation where we can be successful, and a big part of that is going to be our physicality."
The Giants players think they are now battle-tested road warriors
" Most championship teams got to fight through some sort of adversity— whether that's injuries, whether that's not playing your best early in the year," said Giants defensive end Justin Tuck. "Toughness is just fighting through those things."
Tuck was asked if the Giants are tough enough to back up the smack talk.
"We'll find out," he said. "I think we're pretty tough though. But we're going into the hostile environment of a team that's pretty tough too, so we'll see... we'll see how tough we are this week."
Not to be left out of all the pre-game trash talk, Jason Pierre-Paul was asked by a reporter if any team is tougher than the G-Men? Pierre-Paul's reply, "God is tougher than us."
Way to get the big guy on your side. Tim Tebow would be proud.
The Giants and 49ers met earlier in the season in San Francisco and New York lost, 27-20, in a game most Giants players still think they should have won.
"After the last time we played them, we walked away saying that's a very physical team," said Giants offensive lineman Chris Snee. "And the only way to beat them is to out-physical them."
Canty thinks the Giants can take it to the 49ers even on San Francisco's home turf.
"We got some experience in tough road ballgames, not always turning out the way we wanted them to, but we've had that experience nonetheless and we played in tight ballgames before," he said. " So having that experience definitely means a lot for us going into this football game. I think this football team has shown what it can do on the road, and we're looking forward to being able to demonstrate that again."
Then again, a lot of rain is being forecast leading up to Sunday, so this game might be remembered more as the Mud Bowl than the Blood Bowl.
Either way, players check your brass knuckles and switchblades at the gate and watch out for Officer Krupke.
