" Jeremy Shockey was on the other end of the cell phone and he is talking excitedly about today's super-heavyweight showdown at the Superdome between his old team, the 5-0 Giants, and his new team, the 4-0 Saints.

"It's gonna be a fun game," he said.

Shockey has won over his teammates and fans who are as desperate to win their first Super Bowl as he was to play in his first Super Bowl two years ago with Eli Manning and the boys.

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"I would have died to play in that game," Shockey told The Post in an exclusive interview.

Now here he is, almost two years removed from the broken leg that shattered his 2007 season, and people wonder whether he will be able to control the wild child inside him when he sees Eli Manning and coach Tom Coughlin and Mike Pope, his beloved tight ends coach, and all the others on the opposite side of the field and line of scrimmage.

"It's not gonna be the hardest thing in the world to keep my emotions in check," Shockey said. "I'm gonna be a smart football player. I'm not gonna do some stupid bleep that's gonna cost my team."

He reminds you that he isn't the first player to ever be traded.

"It's gonna be different," Shockey said. "It's gonna really be different. But when that whistle blows, it's gonna be football. It's gonna be the same sport I've been playing since I was in seventh grade."

He is in a good emotional place and a good football place, where he gets to play for Sean Payton and with quarterback Drew Brees.

"[Brees] has some tendencies I've never seen before in that position, Shockey said. "He has a damn linebacker's mentality. He comes in at 5:30 in the morning and he's the last guy to leave. He can call a game himself if he had to."

After a rocky start, Shockey

(18 receptions, 162 yards, two TDs) has won Brees' trust.

"I think people on this team know their roles," Shockey said. "It's not critical who gets the most catches or whatever.""