Prior to Sunday’s NFC Divisional game between New York and Green Bay, former Giants running back Tiki Barber was rehashing old news.
Barber, who retired from the NFL following the 2006-07 season, took the opportunity during an interview with radio station ESPN New York 1050 to boo-hoo about Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin not agreeing to meet with him so the two could work out their differences.
Among Barber’s problems, aside from his pathetic attempt to bring attention upon himself, is his obvious inability to grasp reality.
That reality can be summed up very succinctly. No one cares what Barber thinks, most especially not Coughlin or New York Giants fans.
Barber has always given us the impression he was a self-absorbed jackass, generally because of what he says and how he acts. Actions supposedly speak louder than words, but in Barber’s case the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
Barber has been away from the NFL for more than five years, meaning his tumultuous relationship with Coughlin is something he should’ve stopped worrying about a long time ago.
But on the verge of the Giants’ most important game of the season, Barber tried to focus attention away from the game and unproductively used his time to claim victim status.
Maybe Barber unwisely took a page from LeBron James’ book, the one that says when everything goes wrong someone else is to blame.
Or perhaps Barber genuinely hasn’t figured out that his past relationship with Coughlin – and a number of his Giants’ teammates, namely Eli Manning – wasn’t warm and fuzzy because of his constant criticisms.
If you run your mouth as much as Barber did when he played for the Giants, people tend to tune you out. And that’s exactly what’s happening all these years later, although he clearly doesn’t know it.
Continually bringing up his relationship with Coughlin will never bear any positive results, and his comments on Sunday surely won’t help his cause.
The last time I checked, the Giants have done okay without Barber. The year following his retirement, New York defeated the unbeaten and heavily favored New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
After their upset victory over the Packers on Sunday, the Giants are one win away from reaching another Super Bowl. And they’ve accomplished all of that with Coughlin as the head coach and Manning as the quarterback.
So who exactly is to blame for Barber’s issues? He needs only to look in the mirror.
