When Tiki Barber retired from the NFL back in 2006, he cited a waning passion for the game. He was banged up a little bit, but nothing out of the ordinary for a 31-year old featured running back.
Barber left football, got into broadcasting, and seemed to be doing well for himself after football.
But, as is the cause of most problems for men, a woman got in his way. When news broke that Barber was leaving his wife of 11 years (while she was eight months pregnant) for a 23-year old intern at NBC, all hell broke loose.
Tiki was all over the tabloids, had become a pariah, and was fired by NBC, losing a job that paid him roughly $300,000 per year.
About a year after the fallout, Tiki has come up with the genius idea to unretire and try to return to the NFL, citing a renewed passion after watching his twin brother, Ronde, play last season and sign a one-year extension with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“After seeing how much fun Ronde is still having it re-ignited my fire and I’m looking forward to the challenge of seeing if I can get back to the level of where I was,” Barber told Jay Glazer of FOXSports.com.
Right.
I’m sure this has nothing to do with the rumors that Tiki is completely broke and couldn’t even afford to pay the divorce settlement with his ex-wife.
Ronde has been playing for four years while Tiki was hitting on college girls, so why is this passion only coming back now?
The easy and most obvious answer is it’s not, it hasn’t, and it probably never will. Tiki never really seemed like a guy who had a passion for football, but did it because he was very good at it. It was hard to blame him for it then, but if he thinks he can make a comeback at 36 years old without a passion for the game he’s crazy.
The last person I can think of who did something like this is Deion Sanders, who came back at 37 and played for the Baltimore Ravens, but Deion is one of the best players the league has ever seen and clearly carried a passion for the game. Tiki was never even the best running back amongst his contemporaries and, like I said, never seemed to have a love for the game.
He’s going to be 36, won’t be able to contribute on special teams, and will have an extremely limited role. If I’m a head coach or a general manager, I would have to be beyond desperate to consider this.
If I was going to sign an older running back as a backup, there are a lot of guys I’d consider before Tiki.
Brian Westbrook, Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis, Larry Johnson, Willie Parker, and Dominic Rhodes are guys just popping into my head right now. I’m sure there’s at least a handful of other older backs on the market that would probably be more effective than Tiki because they’re a bit younger and have been played consistently over the past four seasons and not sitting at home like Tiki.
I’m sure some team will buy into this and give him a contract, but I don’t expect anything out of him. If the guy carries the ball 50 times next year it will be a miracle and a marvel. But, since he’s probably only doing this for the paycheck, that’s likely 50 more carries than he actually wants.
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