It looks like former Giants great Tiki Barber is in a sad state of affairs. So bad that he’s actually going to try to come back to the NFL this season (if there is one, fingers crossed).
This was a guy who retired two seasons ago because he didn’t want to risk his livelihood to play into his late 30s, like many other players have and then ended up barely being able to walk properly by the time they turned 50.
But guess what: Barber probably doesn’t think he has any other option right now, which is quite sad.
After his retirement from football, Barber joined NBC to become a spot host on the Today Show and on Sunday Night Football. Well, that didn’t go so well. Not only did he call out the Giants, the team he spent his entire career with and was the career leading rusher for, he also cheat on his wife with a woman at least 10 years younger than him.
Oh, his wife, she was eight-months pregnant at the time.
That led to NBC canning him for violating some sort of morale/public image clause in his contract and basically making him untouchable by other networks. Since he had cheated on his prego wife, he’s also hated by women and because he called out the Giants – especially their coach, Tom Coughlin – he was booed at the Ring of Honour ceremony when the team’s new stadium opened. So, Barber doesn’t exactly have a lot of inroads right now. Like, Dancing with the Stars is never going to come calling.
Also, he has reportedly gone broke and can’t even pay the divorce settlement with his ex-wife.
This is just the sad end to a sad story. If Barber hadn’t hung up his cleats two years ago, maybe this would have ended differently. Instead, he’s now in the exact opposite position of where he was and it’s going to be very hard to get any love or respect back.