If you gave me three guesses at which NFL player filed papers yesterday to come out of retirement, I would’ve guessed Brett Favre, Derrick Brooks, and Brett Favre again. I was shocked to hear the news that Tiki Barber is returning to football after a four year hiatus. However, I can’t help but think that yesterday’s move was just the latest low point in the tragic downfall of a great player.
The move is surprising because Barber had previously shown no desire to come back to football. Michael Strahan, like many former athletes, often admits that he misses the camaraderie and competition of the NFL. Yet Barber, despite prematurely leaving a possible Hall of Fame career, contended that he never had regrets about his decision.
There is no precedent in football for an athlete retiring at the height of his career and then coming back after four years away from the game. Deion Sanders joined the Ravens in 2004 after a three year retirement, but his prior stint in Washington showed that he had little left in the tank. Compare that to Barber, whose 2,127 yards from scrimmage in his last season would have placed him second behind only Arian Foster in 2010. And make no mistake about it, a team will definitely take a chance on the former Giant. If Fred Taylor could still earn a roster spot after his steep decline of the past 3 seasons, Tiki will have no problem getting at least a training camp invite. Personally, I’m predicting that the Redskins take the gamble.
So why the sudden 180 for Barber? Answering that question requires a look into Barber's life after football, which has been in a downward spiral since he left the NFL in 2006. Upon retiring, he immediately signed a deal with NBC that paid him $2 million per year to work on both “The Today Show” and “Football Night in America.” Given his long-standing and very vocal desires to become The Next Matt Lauer, expectations were high for his career in media. And yet his time with NBC was full of disappointment. He had a rocky rapport with his colleagues, and his scathing criticisms of Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin damaged his Giants legacy to the point that New York fans boo his highlights when they appear on the stadium jumbotron. His personal life suffered even worse damage when he recently divorced his wife, who was pregnant with twins at the time, for a young intern. Finally, this past June, Barber was fired from NBC, seemingly ending his once hopeful career in broadcasting.
Where did it all go wrong for Barber? The truth is, Tiki just never fit into his new role. He didn’t have the journalistic background to stand out amongst the cast of The Today Show, and yet he was too high brow for the blue collar audience of Football Night in America. As Avon Barksdale would say, he was a man without a country.
Maybe Barber is returning to the NFL because, as he states, he saw his brother Ronde’s joy for the game and realized that he misses it. Maybe he needs money to pay the alimony checks. But if you want my take, I think he just doesn’t have anywhere else to go.
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