Sometimes I’m willing to give players the benefit of the doubt when it comes to news conferences. I’ve read pieces in the New York Post, Daily News and the Times about Tiki Barber’s formal introduction to the world as NBC’s newest “Today” show correspondent as well as an analyst on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. In that news conference, judging by all the stories I’ve read, Barber used his TV debut as an the opportunity to (once again) blast Giants coach Tom Coughlin.

Now what I don’t know is whether or not, Barber was provoked to do so by questions from the media. But let’s assume for a second that he wasn’t. We can do so because Barber’s mouth has allowed us to do. Let’s assume that in talking about making the transition from the backfield to 30 Rock, he decided to elaborate on why he decided to leave football following what were arguably the best 3 seasons of his career and just couldn’t help himself.

Say what you want about Terrell Owens, and as an unashamed Eagles fan I often do, but T.O. has never publicly ripped a coach the way Barber has on more than one occasion. So why does Barber get a pass? Why isn’t Tiki Barber the egomaniac that T.O. is branded of being, and probably is?

In the press conference, Barber talked about Coughlin’s rules and how physically demanding his practices were. Barber was quoted by New York Newsday as saying:

“I never got breaks, never got to just relax, and it took a toll on me. He pushed me in this direction. He kind of forced me to start thinking about what I wanted to do next and I went after it. “There would be days where I couldn’t move on Wednesday and he’d get mad at me for going half-speed. I told him, ‘Coach, I can’t do it. I’m going to be out here, I’m never going to miss a practice. But I can’t give you what you want all the time.’”

In reviewing his statistics, you can’t question Barber’s game but after reviewing Barber’s comments, you almost have to question his heart and his toughness.

The truth of the matter is that the Giants, as crazy as this sounds, will probably be better off without Barber. They had to get Tiki his touches and that probably came at the cost of seeing Eli Manning develop the way other QBs of his draft class have developed (Philip Rivers, Ben Rothlisberger).

The truth of the matter is that the Giants will miss Tiki Barber’s production but they won’t miss his divisive off-the-field sniping of his own head coach. Barber may have been a great player but he was far from a great leader.

Barber, truthfully, is lucky to have gotten out when he did. If the Giants had to go through another season of dysfunction with Eli Manning under-producing and Barber complaining about feeling ‘”forgotten” in the Giants offense, his “good guy” image would have been severely damaged.

And while we’re on the topic, what is Tiki Barber’s legacy? When he announced his retirement at 31, he was wrongly criticized for being a quitter. But don’t get it twisted, Tiki Barber is no Barry Sanders. A recent ESPN poll asking whether or not Tiki Barber was a Hall of Famer came back a land slide, over 80 percent of those polls felt Barber was not worthy of enshrinement. And I would tend to agree with them.

As an NFL anaylst, Barber can publicly blast Coughlin until he’s blue in the face, and he probably will, but the timing of this smacks of sour grapes.

When I read what Barber had to say about Coughlin, for the 75th time, I just couldn’t help but wonder why T.O. is toxic and Tiki Barber isn’t?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 3:22 pm and is filed under The NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.