What's Eating Tiki Barber?
Tiki Barber doesn't want to be on TV. He wants to be on the playing field.
He admitted so much with his claim that, "..."If Tom Coughlin had not remained as head coach of the Giants, I might still be in a Giants uniform." And that may very well be true. It would certainly explain why Barber remains so hostile towards his former employer. And bitter. Very, very bitter.
Lots of people are applauding Barber for offering a strong opinion now that he's in the business of, you know, offering strong opinions (this one being that playing for the Giants is roughly the equivalent of being used as Najeh Davenport's laundry basket). And, yes, part of his job as an analyst and television "journalist" is to be forthright and honest in his points of view. But here's the rub: the only thing I've seen Barber be forthright and honest about is how awful the Giants are.
Every other opinion I've seen Barber express has been done with ham-fisted diplomacy, just like every other goddamned television football analyst out there. So it's not about journalistic integrity. It's about continuing petulance and using a newfound public platform to gripe about a former employer. Oh, it's also about selling a book.
Yes, Tiki Barber has "written" (wink wink) a book, descriptively titled Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond. Conveniently enough, passages from the book have been "leaked" to the major media outlets. Even more convenient, most of the quotes pulled have been shots at Tom Couglin and the Giants. There's nothing about what it was like ascending to the NFL with a twin brother, nothing about what an athlete thinks about towards the end of his career, nothing on the adjustment in his ball-carrying that transformed him from above average to superstar running back. Not to say the book doesn't deal with those things. But with the book due on 9/18, and the Giants' regular season opener this Sunday (football's back!!!!!), it's awfully fishy that the Giants' quotes were the only ones leaked.
Barber isn't being a good journalist. He's using his new career to whine.
