Tiki Barber - Articles - Zimbio

Night Talk: An Interview With Tiki Barber

Mon, 18 Nov 2008 03:02:30 GMT

posted by scottpasinski

Author of 'Pure Hard Workout'

Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond: Tiki Barber, Gil Reavill

Fri, 13 Sep 2008 13:26:03 GMT

posted by butsave

Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond: Tiki Barber, Gil Reavill

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Tiki Barber, former running back for the New York Giants and current Today show correspondent, has seemingly led a charmed life. Whether on the field or in front of the camera, the Smiling Giant makes everything look easy. But it has taken a lot of motivation, hard work, and help from those around him to get where he is today.

Here, he recounts his extraordinary life to date — being raised in semirural Virginia alongside his twin brother, Ronde, by a strong single mother who made every sacrifice to make sure her boys had all the tools they needed to succeed in life; getting drafted in 1997 by the Giants, where he eventually became a standout running back after overcoming injuries and flaws in his game with the help of his coaches and teammates; his stellar 2005 season, when he finished the year with 2,390 yards from scrimmage (the second-highest total in NFL history); and the controversies that marred the Giants’ 2006 season, including the surprise announcement of his retirement at the age of thirty-one.

As much as Tiki takes you into the locker room, past the sidelines, and onto the field to give you the view from inside the huddle, this book is also an inspirational look at his arduous evolution from ordinary player to elite — on the field and off — and at the amazing people along the way who have helped him achieve his goals. Tiki takes on the role of both the interviewer and the interviewee in special “Tiki Interviews Tiki” sections, as he asks and answers the really tough questions. Tiki is a riveting, inspiring read for all who want to know what really goes on behind the scenes, and for anyone looking for the strength to step up and follow his or her dreams.

Forty-two steps

Every run from scrimmage tells a story. Every run has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

I’ve been running with a football for more than a decade and a half now, since the early 1990s, when I played alongside my twin brother Ronde with the Cave Spring High School Knights football team in Roanoke, Virginia. We were teammates at the University of Virginia, too. For the whole of my professional sports career, I was a running back for the New York Giants in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League.

Running with a football is a specialized skill. Not everyone can do it. So I want to give you an idea of what it feels like.

Beginning, middle, and end. Pick a run, any run. I’ll show you the beginning, middle, and end.

Well, maybe not any run. Some would make extremely short stories, one-word smack-down poems. Let’s pick a running play that is more of a full-length novel, one that also happens to be one of the best TD runs that I have ever made.

I’ll break it down, stride for stride.

December 17, 2005. Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Our opponents were the Kansas City Chiefs, with their explosive running back Larry Johnson, then just coming into his own in his third season in the league.

The day had high clouds and was cool, with the temperature hovering around forty degrees. A wind out of the west had kicked up earlier, sweeping across the synthetic FieldTurf at the stadium, but by kickoff it had died to a whisper. Perfect football weather.

This was my season. I was playing for pride (”Play proud” is the two-word blessing my mother Geraldine sends Ronde and me on every single one of our game days), I was playing to win (the Giants came into the battle with the Chiefs with nine wins and four losses, in the hunt for the play-offs), and I was playing for my dear departed friends and mentors, Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch, owners of the Giants, both of whom had passed away in the previous six weeks.

I took all those reasons with me to the line when we broke huddle near the end of the first half, a little under three minutes left in the second quarter. The Chiefs were ahead by a field goal, 0-3. We were injury-depleted and had a lot of guys playing nicked. I remember feeling a powerful sense of determination, a calm kind of euphoria. We were behind. I could not, would not, allow the score to stay that way.

Our offense, behind quarterback Eli Manning, had the ball on Kansas City’s forty-one yard line. The always steady Eli, who has never uttered a single curse word in the huddle in the three years I’ve played with him, called “Forty/Fifty Slide East on Red.” That meant Eli would hand off to me and I would follow a pulling guard around the right side.

That’s not the real name of the play, which is more of an I-could-tell-you-but-then-I’d-have-to-kill-you secret, since the Giants don’t change their nomenclature all that often and I wouldn’t want our calls to get too public.

As he always did, Eli also called two additional plays, in case the Chiefs altered their defensive set or he saw something that would require him to “check off” or audibly change the called play once he scoped the opponents at the line of scrimmage. One of the checks was a quick (a short pass) and the other was a pitch to me for an off-tackle run on the left side.

I didn’t much like the idea of the second check. An off-tackle run to the left would lead me straight at Kendrell Bell, linebacker on the Chiefs’ right-side post, a photon-fast Pro Bowl perennial, college shot-putter, and former Pittsburgh Steeler who gobbled up running backs for breakfast. Part of the reason I’ve been successful at my job is that I know enough to avoid punishing tacklers like Kendrell Bell at all costs.

Whatever happened, whether I ran right or left, Jim Finn would be helping me — “Finny,” my fullback, a bulldozer-blade of a blocker who would blast away any tackler in my path.

As we broke huddle, the noise from the 78,000-plus fans swelled in intensity, increasing from sixty decibels, say, the sound of heavy traffic, to more like one hundred, just below a kickoff roar. I inhaled and caught the familiar smell of game day, a sweet mix of autumn air, liniment, and sweat.

The beginning.

Time spiraled down, collapsing as it always does as the center approaches the ball. My heart rate climbed. A team physician could have told you that it increased from its normal sixty beats per minute upward past eighty.

I lined up in I-formation six yards behind Eli, who stood surveying the defense with his 305-pound center, the bodyguard-samurai-bullet-stopper Shaun O’Hara. My respiration rose and then steadied, as if in tune with the mounting screams from the stands.

Shaun screamed louder than the fans, yelling, “Ninety-nine,” identifying the key K.C. defender, and Eli echoed him, also shouting, “Ninety-nine.”

Shaun went into his crouch; Eli cocked his head slightly to the left so I could hear him and then checked the play to the off-tackle left. “One Taco West, Twenty-Thirty Veer.”

I would be heading straight at Kendrell Bell.

Eli began his cadence. In the huddle he had said “on four,” meaning the snap would come on the fourth number in the series. “Seven, fifteen, forty” — Shaun would hike the ball on the next count — “two.”

The time between the snap and the whistle in professional football has got to be the most compressed, heightened reality this side of military combat. It is a zone beyond thought. I didn’t think, Well, right now Eli will swivel 180 degrees and pitch the ball back to me and I will follow Finny off my left foot.

It’s not that way at all. I don’t think. I act. Everything — breathing, body movement, mental processes — becomes automatic.

Eli got Shaun’s snap, turned right, and made a single yard-long stride away from the line, so that he was back to the forty-five yard line by the time of his second half step. He pitched the ball to me, two yards behind him. The football sailed within a foot of Finny, who was already booming forward toward the line.

I took my first stride off my left foot, crossing my right leg toward the left side, thereby alerting Bell and his Chief cohorts, who were watching me and Eli like hawks, keying off our movements. I cocked both arms out to receive the ball.

A pitched football from Eli Manning is not a shrinking-violet kind of thing. It’s definite. Hard. The ball came at me perfectly. Eli didn’t spiral it, but tossed it lengthwise, so that it presented its fattest part to me. I broke off the blocks to meet it. In the midst of my second stride of the run, my right hand pushed the ball up into the basket of my left arm, snug against my bicep.

The moment I take possession of the ball, I become prey. The eleven predators on the Chiefs defense, weighing in at more than a ton (2,741 pounds to be exact, according to their official listed weights), are every ounce bent on my total obliteration.

People talk about quick feet, balance, and speed as ideal ingredients for a running back, but for me the most vital element might be sniper-quality vision. I am not aware of doing it, but I’ve seen telephoto shots of myself during a run, and my eyes are open so wide they appear unnatural.

I’m taking everything in. I resemble nothing so much as an antelope feeling the hot breath of the lion. The difference being that instead of running away from the predators, I have to run directly at them, an antelope heading straight for the pride.

Right away I saw a problem. The first predator, Chiefs defensive end Jared Allen, had penetrated four yards into our backfield. Giants veteran Bob Whitfield, our offensive tackle on the left side, adjusted quickly. Instead of firing off the line, he stood Allen up and pushed him outside. On my third stride I had a decision to make. I had to figure out a way to get around Allen and not lose my fullback.

I didn’t linger over it. I made a stutter-cut to the right, choosing the inside, then veered back left (strides four and five) and came within an inch of Whitfield’s firmly planted left cleat as I blew past him and Allen toward the line.

Finny had been there before me. There was daylight. Well, what the sportscasters call “daylight” anyway, but for me it’s always getting eclipsed, closing down, about to go dark. I felt like I was running directly into white Chiefs jerseys. With a couple yards still to go to the line of scrimmage, I was cut off on my right by Kansas City defensive end Eric Hicks, rampaging in from the other side.

On my left, sure enough, Kendrell Bell. Number 99. I hunched, protecting the ball, preparing to get hit, and picked up speed. I knew from elementary physics that the best way to bust a tackle is not to shrink from it, not to act on your self-preservation instincts — Slow down! Danger! You are about to hit a wall! Slow down! — but rather to accelerate. Counterintuitive, I know. But it works.

Again, I wasn’t puzzling out physics just then. My impulse to accelerate in the face of a tackle was automatic by now, ingrained by years of training, coaching, and experience. Momentum and speed carried me. Finny banged Bell just enough to slow him down, and with my sixth stride I was at the Kansas City forty-one. All that trouble and toil just to get to the race’s starting line.

Beginning, middle, and end. The beginning was over. I now entered the middle of the story, the place where novels and movies and oftentimes football runs die a miserable death. I was still braced by Hicks and Bell to my right and left, and about to ram into Jeremy Shockey straight ahead of me.

Shockey. The guy is unbelievable, always running in overdrive, slamming it, jamming it, blowing up the playing field. He’s well-celebrated as a go-to pass receiver. For me, he’s a kick-ass blocker and the dynamo that lights up the Giants.

Right at that moment Shockey was stacking up not one, not two, but three Chiefs, linemen and linebackers, stopping them in their tracks with a little help from Giants guard Rich Seubert. They all piled together across my path like those concrete walls at which they hurl cr…

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TIKI BARBER CALL MSNBC CO-HOST A CUNT ON LIVE T.V.

Thu, 22 Aug 2008 14:23:00 GMT

posted by hydedmontage
IT SEEMS TIKI BARBER MAY NOT EVER GET IT RIGHT, HE'S MOUTH HAS GOTTEN HIM IN HOT WATER AGAIN, THIS TIME THE VICTIM MSNBC'S JENNA WOLFE. WOLFE AND BARBER HAVE BEEN COVERING THE OLYMPICS FOR MSNBC, IN A PREVIOUS INTERVIEW WOLFE TOOK A STAB AT BARBER, (ON THE AIR) CLAIMING SHE WAS WEARING TIKI'S SUPERBOWL RING. APPARENTLY THAT DIDN'T GO OVER WELL WITH THE EX-GIANTS RUNNING BACK. LISTEN CAREFULLY AT 29 SECONDS, BARBER SAYS TO WOLFE, "YOU'RE A TOTAL MEDAL CUNT". I ALMOST SHIT MY PANTS, TIKI BARBER IS THE BEST ON-AIR CORRESPONDENT I'VE EVER WITNESSED. I'M THINKING A NEWS SHOW STARRING JESSIE JACKSON AND TIKI BARBER, WE'LL CALL IT "I'LL CUT YOUR NUTS OFF CUNT".

HYDE-D

Former Giant Tiki Barber: ‘I Miss Football. I Still Have A Lot Left’

Sun, 8 Oct 2007 12:10:30 GMT

posted by kruise

Filed under: NY Giants, NFL Media Watch, New York

Could former Giants running back and current NBC analyst Tiki Barber possibly return to the NFL next year? As far-fetched as that may have seemed only a few days ago, it appears that Barber is no longer so sure of his decision to leave the game.

“I miss football. I want to be out there playing on Sunday afternoons. I miss the stage. I also miss the guys a little bit because they were my close friends for so many years. In fact, I ran into Jeremy Shockey on the street the other day and I said to him, ‘Damn, I forgot how big you are!’ He gave me a big hug and said he missed me too. It was great. If I wanted to come back and play football next year I could. I know I still have a lot left,” Barber told Chaunce Hayden of Steppin’ Out magazine.

It looks like the sudden success of his former team has finally gotten to him. When they were 0-2 and looking like a dead duck, he told John Madden there was no chance of a return. However, now that the defense has turned it around, Eli Manning has stepped up and their running game is just as good as ever, his tune has changed a bit.

This begs the question, would Giants fans welcome Barber back? And perhaps more importantly, would he be willing to return to New York if Tom Coughlin is still the head coach? At this point, the team appears to be rallying around good ‘ole T.C. and his job may be more secure than ever before.

I’m anxious to see how this plays out.

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The "Don't Bet on This" Playoff Preview

Mon, 23 Jan 2007 18:49:51 GMT

posted by themondayamqb
Ahhh the NFL Playoffs. I love it! Enough of the political tomfoolery that is known as the BCS, time for some real football! I know that Big Willie already posted his first round predictions while playing the spread but I'd like to do mine March Madness style and pick my winners all the way through right now. And, since I am sure to be wrong on most of these (although if I am right you will hear me gloat) I will not play the spread since I don't like to gamble on football that much. So, here we go:

DALLAS COWBOYS AT SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

First off let me state how pitiful the NFC is. That fact cannot be overstated. Seattle has quietly come into the playoffs, while RomoMania has cooled off in the last few weeks (let me go on record as saying that I personally believe Romo had a few good weeks that made his head big but now its time to come back to earth and play like the no-name QB he really is but like I said, 99.9% of my predictions are usually wrong). Bill Parcells, FUPA and all, has lost control. Its not his fault. The blame is solely on owner Jerry Jones. He basically forced Parcells to have T.O. and lets face it, nobody can control his pompous ass. But I digress. Seattle is finally back at full strength and they are playing at home. I'm taking Seattle in a blowout.

NEW YORK GIANTS AT PHILADELPHIA EAGLES

Gotta hand it to Andy Reid, he's a hell of a coach. Just a month and a half ago everyone was saying the Giants were the team in the NFC. Then it was Dallas. Well, the Eagles emerged from that division the victors, winning 5 straight and rolling into the playoffs with momentum, and they did it without their star QB. On the other hand, the Giants have looked just awful. Their lone bright spot has been Tiki Barber. Eli Manning (a major pussy) has been getting bashed in the media, and rightfully so. I am actually surprised Daddy hasn't come to his defense and demand the newspapers quit picking on his baby. Well, once again Barber will be the lone bright spot (maybe some Brandon Jacobs action too, since him and I are alumni of the same school), Eli Manning will suck hippo cock, Shockey will blame the coaching staff, Coughlin will blame Eli, Strahan will blame Plaxico, Plaxico will say "I don't give a shit what that gap-toothed fat fuck thinks, now let me smoke this spliff in peace", Pappa Manning will defend Eli, Coughlin will choke Pappa Manning ala Latrell Sprewell, the Giants will lose and Coughlin will get fired.

"Stop picking on my baby boy! He's very
sensitive! You're hurting his feelings!"

NEW YORK JETS AT NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

Bill Belichick feels he was betrayed by Eric Mangini and feels Mangini is being a baby. Belichick has actually acted like a baby after a regular season loss to the Jets. Conventional wisdom would say Brady + Belichick + home field + playing the goddamn Jets = easy New England victory. I say otherwise. Now, this is mostly on sheer gut feeling, but I think the Jets will be the surprise team of the playoffs. The major X factor here is Belichick's cockyness. He had won so many times with interchangeable parts that he told Dieon Branch, New England's only real receiver, to get the fuck outta town. Mangini has proven he can coach, and I think he will have a defensive scheme that will contain Brady. If the Jets can stop Lawrence Maroney, which is no easy task, they will squeak by the Pats. Now let the barrage of emails calling me a complete moron begin. I won't blame you.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS AT INDIANAPOLIS COLTS

This may be the easiest game to predict. The Colts have no defense. The Chiefs have a helluva offensive weapon in Larry Johnson (by the way, just to show you I do admit when I am wrong, I predicted that the Chiefs would have O Line problems this year and LJ would be a flop. Boy do I have egg on my face!). The Colts window of opportunity has officially shut. Plus, Peyton Manning has proven time and time again that when it comes to the postseason he is useless (I hope Pappa Manning doesn't demand I take that statement back). I'm taking the Chiefs in a landslide.

This all brings us to the Division Round:

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES AT NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

Let me say that although Nick Saban is getting bashed for taking Duante Culpepper instead of Drew Brees, lets be real. Both QBs were injured last year and it was a crap shoot. That all being said, Brees is a stud. Personally, I think he should have won the MVP, or at least Co-MVP (I'm sure I will get another barrage of emails but let me say that LT is my favorite current player in the NFL and the above statement is not taking anything away from him, I just feel the Saints would be a 4 win team without Brees, whereas the Chargers would be above .500 without LT). This game is where the Eagles run out of gas. The Saints offense is too potent, especially at home on turf. Saints in a barn burner.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS AT CHICAGO BEARS

Da Bearss! Da Bearss!! Polish Sausage, Ditka, Bearss.....Enough of my dreaming. This is definitely the hardest game for me to predict. Good Rex = Bears Blowout, Bad Rex = Bears loss. Which one will show up? And what about that banged up defense? And have we seen enough of the Seahawks at full strength this year to fairly assess them? ARRGH!!! Well, I'm a lifelong Bears fan, so I'm pretty accustomed to disappointment. God, I really hope I am wrong on this one, but I'm predicting Bad Rex comes to play and brings his 1.3 or lower passer rating with him and sends the Seahawks to victory.

NEW YORK JETS AT BALTIMORE RAVENS

The Ravens are another one of those teams nobody talks about. Their defense is stellar as usual, and their offense is improved thanks to them actually having a QB for once. That's about all the commentary I have on them. Brian Billick thinks he is a genius, Eric Mangini could be a genius. Gut feeling here again, I'm taking the Jets in an upset.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS AT SAN DIEGO CHARGERS

San Diego Chargers, featuring league MVP LT. Kansas City Chiefs featuring the game's second best RB LT. Wow. What a game this will be. San Diego is the toast of the NFL. The Chiefs defense is improved this year, but they are not as good as the Chargers' defense. LT will have 5 TDs and the Chargers will roll to victory.

Now for the Conference Championships:

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS AT NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

Once again, who the hell knows what we will see from Seattle. The potent Saints offense will once again be at home on turf, but Shaun Alexander will also benefit from playing on turf, and Seattle also has a good defense. The Saints have virtually no defense. I'm going with big game coaching experience on this one and giving the nod to Mike Holmgren and the Seahawks. Repeat NFC Champs.

NEW YORK JETS AT SAN DIEGO CHARGERS

It's time for Schottenheimer to finally make it to the big game. Mangini may be a genius, but this Jets team just doesn't have the manpower to stop the Chargers. San Diego in the Super Bowl.

Finally, The Super Bowl

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS VERSUS SAN DIEGO CHARGERS

This is the match up of the last two MVPs. Seattle will once again fall one victory shy of the promised land. With no John Elway standing in his way, Marty Scottenheimer will finally win the big one and be the feel good story of the year. San Diego Chargers: Super Bowl XLI Champs.