Tiki Barber Plans to Return
Tiki Barber has apparently filed papers to come out of retirement, which just seems like a colossally ridiculous decision. In fact, allow me to colossally ridicule it right here. Barber is going to be 36 in a couple months. Nobody wants a 36-year-old running back who hasn't played in four years. The oldest halfbacks in the NFL last season were Fred Taylor and Kevin Faulk at age 34. The former is going to retire and the latter might retire as well. Who on earth is Barber kidding?
By the way, top rushing seasons at age 36+ since 1978:
Marcus Allen: 830 yards, 1996
John Riggins: 677 yards, 1985
Marcus Allen: 505 yards, 1997
MacArthur Lane: 277 yards, 1978
Comments
61 comments, Last at 18 Mar 2011, 12:50pm
#1 by Mikey // Mar 08, 2011 - 2:40pm
He can probably get a job with former coach Jim Fassel.
#2 by Alabama ManDance (not verified) // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:05pm
I smell some sweet-ass reality show brewin'
#36 by jds (not verified) // Mar 09, 2011 - 10:03am
Who is on Hard Knocks this year?
#3 by Mr Shush // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:09pm
It does seem bonkers, but in fairness Marcus Allen was pretty effective at the same age, and not completely worthless a year later, so it's not entirely without precedent.
Still, the list of backs who have had 500+ yard seasons at age 36 or above consists of Allen and John Riggins.
The list of those with 100+ yards is:
Allen
Riggins
MacArthur Lane
John Henry Johnson
Lorenzo Neal
Ollie Matson
See here for a complete list of running back seasons after age 36.
#7 by johonny (not verified) // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:26pm
I sort of agree. Allen's family were genetic freaks, his brother also played forever. Barber's twin is still going at an athletic position. But how much are you going to pay him. I imagine he wants starting 250+ carry back kind of money. Yeah I might slip him the NFL minimum to come to camp, but I'm not paying the price of a starting back. Rickey Williams is probably going to have a hard time finding a roster spot next season, Tiki is probably going to have an even harder time. Really is the injury risk really worth the money difference Tiki would make in the league as oppose to reporting on the league? Just doesn't seem likely.
#12 by Travis // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:55pm
Really is the injury risk really worth the money difference Tiki would make in the league as oppose to reporting on the league? Just doesn't seem likely.
Tiki was fired by NBC (along with his $300k-plus salary) for violating the morals clause of his contract. (And it wasn't like he had Charlie Sheen-like success before that - he had already been dropped from Football Night In America and exiled to the final hour of the Today show.) He was doing BBC commentary last year, and I doubt that paid much.
Tiki does have the 4th-most rushing yards of any age-29 player ever, most of any age-30, and 2nd-most of any age-31, plus he's managed to avoid contact for the last four years, so he might not be totally useless in 2011.
#18 by sundown (not verified) // Mar 08, 2011 - 5:57pm
If memory serves, he was technically under contract to the Today show up until being fired but hadn't actually appeared on air in months--they were literally paying him to stay home. Now, he has no income from his media career but must have hefty child support bills to go along with whatever he lost in the divorce. Throw in some probable losses from the recession, etc. and you're left with a guy who needs money to pay the bills.
#20 by BigCheese // Mar 08, 2011 - 6:54pm
Well, apparently he's too broke to pay the divorce settlement:
I sincerely hope a classy guy such as he gets treated like he deserves: called into all 31 other NFL teams' offices, shown a rookie RB and told "we were going to go with you, but we found this newer model that we like better."
"He used to be an intern" addendum optional.
- Alvaro
#42 by Theo // Mar 09, 2011 - 5:49pm
Bottom line:
do the work of a mother and you'll get paid like an athlete.
#61 by William Lloyd … (not verified) // Mar 18, 2011 - 12:50pm
I am guessing, just guessing, that some of those comps might have used PED's to get back in the game. (But not Marcus Dupree. Never. Never).
#4 by alsep73 // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:11pm
It's almost certainly silly. That said, he hasn't endured the pounding that your standard 36-year-old RB would have, given that he's been resting for 4 years. (He's been rusting, too, so YMMV.)
What kind of precedent is there for a comeback after this much time away? Particularly for someone who was playing at as high a level as Barber was at the time he initially retired?
#9 by Independent George // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:34pm
I would sign him, just to improve my team's chances at winning a Super Bowl after he retires again while chirping at our young QB.
#15 by Aaron Brooks' … (not verified) // Mar 08, 2011 - 5:14pm
Ever, or just in the modern era?
#24 by thok // Mar 08, 2011 - 8:38pm
There was a QB that the Eagles signed last year who was out of the NFL for a similar length of time. He didn't turn out badly for them.
Granted that QB was younger when he left (and didn't leave by choice.)
#31 by Shattenjager // Mar 08, 2011 - 11:38pm
Tiki Barber played his last game January 7, 2007. That would be about 55 months between his last game and the first preseason game this year.
Michael Vick went from December 31, 2006 to mid-August of 2009. That's about 32 months.
I'm not sure those are really a "similar" length of time.
#33 by Travis // Mar 09, 2011 - 8:41am
Bronco Nagurski retired after the 1937 season and came back for one final season in 1943 at age 35.
Also, not quite the same situation, but Roger Staubach didn't play football for 5 years (1964-68) after graduating from Navy due to service committments. Napoleon McCallum (1987-89) and Glenn Davis (1947-49) each missed 3.
#40 by zlionsfan // Mar 09, 2011 - 5:47pm
Nagurski is probably a good match. I am assuming the Navy players stayed in better shape for their commitments than Barber did for his TV commitments.
#48 by Jerry // Mar 09, 2011 - 10:10pm
Except that Bronko was returning to a league where many of the best players were away in the armed forces. Tiki's competition will be stiffer.
#5 by commissionerleaf // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:16pm
To what league? The UFL might take him, and they are even planning to play football next year.
#6 by Marko // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:26pm
What a joke. I can't see anyone wanting him. Although it would be fun to see him on a team that plays the Giants this year.
Reporter to random veteran Giants defensive player: "What do you think about playing against Tiki Barber next week?"
Random veteran Giants defensive player: "CAN'T WAIT!"
#8 by slipknottin // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:32pm
If he does un retire, he is under contract with the giants still.
Apparently not having any real media job and paying for a blonde bimbo girlfriend and pregnant (now ex) wife at the same time can be expensive.
What a fail of a person
#13 by JasonK // Mar 08, 2011 - 5:06pm
Statement from official NYG twitter feed: "We wish Tiki nothing but the best and when able to make the transaction, we will release him from reserve/retired list."
(Note the discrepancy between this and the boilerplate "we investigate every option" that Jerry Reese has repeately given when asked whether the team will try to bring Plaxico back when he gets out of prison.)
#10 by Theo // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:40pm
The redskins are always in for some over the hill halfbacks...
Can he do something? During the super bowl, he was a studio commentator and said he was far away from playing.
.
This is a marketing thing or a big joke.
He could play 3rd down back for the Bills or frighten Steelers linebackers by signing with the Browns or something.
#26 by JoeD (not verified) // Mar 08, 2011 - 9:56pm
The first thing I thought of was that the Redskins would sign him on.
#11 by Bright Blue Shorts // Mar 08, 2011 - 3:47pm
Yep ... saw him commentating for the BBC during the Super Bowl ... he had a rather nice sweater ...
#14 by big_jgke // Mar 08, 2011 - 5:13pm
Something something Al Davis joke...
#16 by MilkmanDanimal // Mar 08, 2011 - 5:31pm
Sounds like somebody is desperate to raise their image in the media so they can get a better broadcasting job.
#17 by Mountain Time … // Mar 08, 2011 - 5:54pm
Nope, totally serious. He's broke and needs the money.
#32 by Lance // Mar 08, 2011 - 11:58pm
This is what I thought. However, all afternoon on ESPN radio (via the internet), this was discussed and amazingly-- or not?-- no one speculated that this was a money issues. And while I hadn't read that HuffPo piece, I figured he was in financial trouble after the scandal broke re him running out on his pregnant wife for some 20-something intern. It seemed obvious that he was figuring on a quick ploy to get $800k+ a year to make ends meet (tough life!), and yet the ESPN talking heads were all clueless-- and wondering why a 36 year-old would want to play back-up RB and play on special teams!
It's pretty lame when the self-proclaimed "World Wide Leader" can't staff its radio broadcast with people who can put together pretty obvious pieces of a pretty easy puzzle on a day when the other major sports news was whether or not Miami Heat players cried after a regulars season loss.
#19 by sundown (not verified) // Mar 08, 2011 - 6:28pm
His broadcasting career is dead. He put a bullet in it when he got himself fired from NBC but it was on life support way before then. By the end they were literally paying him to stay home until his contract ran out. (His title was "contributor" to the Today show but he hadn't been on air in months.) But we'll always have his "count" Olympics gaffe to remember him by.
He wrecked his marriage, threw away his post-football career and is universally despised by Giants' fans so he can't even open a restaurant like every other former player does.
The only question now is whether his comeback will end with a fumble or him getting hurt. Perhaps he'll manage both on the same play.
#22 by Jonathon (not verified) // Mar 08, 2011 - 7:49pm
I hope his agent made a mint because getting Tiki a broadcasting job like that had to be one of the great sales efforts of all time. People work their entire lives hoping to make it on the Today show and Tiki got to start out there based on nothing more than a big smile and the fact he'd played in New York. It wasn't even like he was their sports guy; they had him covering actual stories. But he was terrible. And he made the off-color joke at the Olympics. And he twisted arms to get his mistress an internship. Then he ditched his wife when she was basically in the delivery room. Way to throw it all away, loser.
#50 by Bjorn Nittmo (not verified) // Mar 10, 2011 - 5:42pm
I'm not condoning Tiki's behavior, and perhaps this is beyond the scope of this thread, but is anyone else troubled, or at least given pause, by the fact that someone can get fired for leaving his marriage? Granted, public image is perhaps a worthy consideration for the broadcasting industry, and perhaps his being let go had nothing to do with the "morals clause".
#51 by dmb // Mar 10, 2011 - 6:29pm
I don't really know anything about those events (or Barber's personal life in general), but my understanding is that his mistress was an NBC intern. My guess is that his termination had much more to do with having an undisclosed romantic relationship with an underling than it did to do with his marital status.
#53 by Thomas_beardown // Mar 10, 2011 - 11:38pm
Most states in the US have at will employment. Your employer can fire you for any reason except a few discriminatory exceptions (race, religion, sex).
#54 by Shattenjager // Mar 11, 2011 - 10:24am
He had a contract.
(It's also actually all states that follow the at-will employment rule. Some have not even adopted an exception for discrimination.)
#55 by Thomas_beardown // Mar 11, 2011 - 3:00pm
Well I don't know what his contract looked like, but it obviously had a release clause which he negotiated. Hard to feel bad for him in any way.
#57 by Shattenjager // Mar 11, 2011 - 6:33pm
According to what reporting I've been able to find, his contract ended. He was not released from it.
I'm not saying you should feel sorry for him or disagreeing with your sentiment at all. It's just inaccurate to say that he was an at-will employee when he was a contract employee.
#21 by JasonK // Mar 08, 2011 - 7:31pm
I saw ill omens for Tiki's broadcasting career early on. Week 1, 2007. Giants had the Sunday Night game-- it was Manning Bowl I v. Indy. Just before halftime, Brandon Jacobs limped off the field with some minor injury. During the halfime show, Tiki was making one of his first appearances in the (then ridiculously crowded) SNF studio, and somebody (probably Costas) asked Tiki about the Jacobs injury. I was ready to hear something reasonably insightful-- Derrick Ward was the Giants' #2 guy at the time, and Tiki had been a teammate of Ward's for a couple seasons. And Tiki says exactly what every other bobblehead would say in that situation: "And now they have to go with the untested Derrick Ward."
I'm not going to say that lead directly to being unworthy even to do puff pieces on county fairs for the 4th hour of the Today Show, but it wasn't exactly a positive sign.
On the other hand, he is still the best offensive player the Giants have had in my lifetime, and pretty close to the only reason the team was watchable from 2001-2005. I have no rancor towards the man, but neither do I have much sympathy for the situation that his decisions have put him in.
#29 by JasonK // Mar 08, 2011 - 11:18pm
Ah, you're right. It was the opener at Dallas. I was counting back 4 years from the Giants-Colts game this year, mistakenly counting the most recent season as 2011, not 2010. (A hazard of spending my workday dealing with the (U.S.) federal fiscal year, which has been in 2011 since October.)
#25 by slipknottin // Mar 08, 2011 - 8:45pm
According to his trainer, Tiki has only been training for two weeks. Im really starting to think this is just a marketing thing.
#27 by Raiderjoe // Mar 08, 2011 - 10:00pm
Is poster drunk? Why woudl it be makryeing ploy? Who is Barber makreting to?
#28 by slipknottin // Mar 08, 2011 - 10:48pm
I feel like hes going to come out with a book or something about his experience. I dont know, it got him into a trending twitter topic, more talk about him than he has had in years.
I just find it pretty insane that after two weeks of working out he decided that hes ready for the NFL again.
#41 by zlionsfan // Mar 09, 2011 - 5:48pm
Presumably to some idiot with a lot of money.
Fortunately for Barber, there are plenty of those in the NFL.
#43 by Theo // Mar 09, 2011 - 5:55pm
a real life 'make it into the NFL again' reality show.
Come on, it's not that hard to figure out.
#45 by Raiderjoe // Mar 09, 2011 - 6:23pm
He'd make moroe money plaing and making a roster if fully focused on football. If wannt to mess around with TV show he going ot fail.
football= good
TV- bad
Hansnt Barber learne d this already?
#30 by JasonK // Mar 08, 2011 - 11:25pm
I'm thinking that it's simply a "really desperate for money" thing. After being canned from NBC, whatever employment he can find probably pays a good deal less than what his child support obligations alone eat up. The NFL veteran minimum (I think he has 10 credited seasons, so it would be the maximum veteran minimum of $860K) would be a substantial raise. He probably thinks that, if his brother can still do it, he can too.
#34 by andrew // Mar 09, 2011 - 9:04am
John Riggins took a year off, didn't he. Granted in his prime...
Marcus Allen might as well have at the end of his Raiders years.
Would be an interesting article, DVOA pre and post comeback of various backs who have done that (for reasons other than injury).
#35 by MilkmanDanimal // Mar 09, 2011 - 9:43am
The problem with that is this is pretty unique situation; he's 36 and has been gone for four years. It's not like you're going to be able to run similarity scores for this. Or, really, for him, because I can't see anyone wanting to pay what would be a pretty high salary for a probably third-string RB at this poin.
#38 by justanothersteve // Mar 09, 2011 - 12:34pm
I have no idea what shape he's in. He could be a #2 or situational back with the idea he plays more in the playoffs. I do agree with you. But it only takes one team (Mr Snyder on line 1) to think it's a good idea.
#37 by andrew // Mar 09, 2011 - 11:03am
Hey, if Tiki can come back after four years, maybe that means we have to fear Favre for another half decade?
#39 by Shattenjager // Mar 09, 2011 - 4:27pm
You weren't already? I'm not going to feel free of him as long as he can still walk.
#44 by Goodsmilewellspoken (not verified) // Mar 09, 2011 - 5:55pm
Sports reporters talk about athletes with bright futures in broadcasting the way unsuspecting neighbors describe the guy next door when the find out he's a serial killer. "He's so polite, well spoken, always smiling, and saying hello, never caused any trouble." Those aren't the qualities of a good broadcaster, they are the qualities of someone trying to market an image, an athlete, or serial killer trying to make themselves safe for endorsement. It's creepy, not praiseworthy, and often indicative of something to hide.
#46 by batbatt // Mar 09, 2011 - 9:43pm
What I haven't seen anyone mention yet is he's returning to football because he likes to play the ga-...hahaha, sorry, I just couldn't complete that sentence...
#60 by Bobman // Mar 14, 2011 - 1:50pm
Yup, we're all cynics and he just wants to have fun out there. I suspect he and Brett Favre will start their own team or league, with the sideline staffed entirely by nubile interns. "Hey Brett, sling me the ball, man. Hurry, I think that blond's looking at me."
"That's not just some blond, baldy, that's may masseuse. Here, have some Wrangler jeans."
#47 by justanothersteve // Mar 09, 2011 - 10:03pm
The more I think about it, the more I'm worried. Two words: replacement players. Tiki vs regular players is dumb. Tiki vs replacement players might actually make sense for a few games.
#49 by Raiderjoe // Mar 09, 2011 - 11:41pm
wil nto eb replacement players beucuase this willn be lockout not stirike.
#52 by bill (not verified) // Mar 10, 2011 - 6:50pm
Maybe we can get some replacement owners then, and have ourselves a ball game !
#56 by commissionerleaf // Mar 11, 2011 - 4:33pm
UFL
#58 by Theo // Mar 11, 2011 - 8:49pm
This UFL thing could become big. And with the cloning technology as it is today, maybe Johnny Phoenix can indeed have a long 300 million career.
#59 by Michael LaRocca (not verified) // Mar 14, 2011 - 12:42am
This is the real reason there's no new CBA. They're all waiting for Tiki to give up before they bring back the NFL. It might be easier just to add a "no Tiki" clause to the new CBA.
Meanwhile, Tiki's still crying because they're talking about giving Regis's old gig to Michael Strahan.
Is Tiki Barber like Brian Gumbel while Ronde Barber is like his way cooler brother Greg Gumbel? I dunno. But mocking Tiki Fumble-itis Barber sure is fun. Pile on everybody!