The agent for Tiki Barber told Sports Illustrated’s website Sunday that he is “flabbergasted” that no NFL teams gave his client a shot to make their squads this offseason.
The 36-year-old former New York Giants running back surprisingly retired in 2006 to pursue a broadcasting career. Then, just as surprisingly, he decided to give the NFL another shot this season.
“We are flabbergasted that Tiki has not had an opportunity with any team, especially when rosters were at 90 players this year,” agent Mark Lepselter told SI.com. “I certainly thought some team would be intrigued to see what he had left in the tank.”
The NFL allowed teams to have 90 players in training camps this year due to the shortened offseason created by the lockout. Teams had to get down to the mandatory 53-player limit by Saturday.
The Miami Dolphins were the only team Barber worked out for once the lockout ended.
Barber is the Giants’ career rushing leader with 10,449 yards, 22nd best in league history. He told HBO sports in June that he has battled depression after his retirement and that he hoped to play in the NFL to restore his confidence.
Honestly, I would have been 100% more surprised had an NFL team given Tiki a shot. The man has been out of the National Football League for FOUR AND A HALF YEARS. In a sport where the average career is just about three years, and a position where the average career is a little less than two and a half years, why would someone take a flyer on a back that spent nine years in the league as a feature back? The fact that Tiki has almost 11,000 yards on him, plus the almost five years he’s spent away from the game, does not exactly make a running back that I would want on my team.
The man retired in the prime of his career. I look at a running back of his advanced age like I look at my old Chevy Blazer. I used to beat the shit out of this thing (pops I hope you aren’t reading this). The ol’ girl is a ’96. My car has fifteen years in the league at this point and a hundred-and-eighty-two thousand miles on the odometer? That is not a girl I look to be a number one car in the yard, and Tiki is not a number one back in the league. Or a two. Or a three. There is a reason the Dolphins decided not to sign him after his workout with the ball club. Sometimes five years of rust is too much to shake off.
PS: What do you think was going through Tiki’s mind when he likened living in his agent’s attic to it being “…like a reverse Anne Frank kind of thing”? C’mon Tiki. That was like when Rashard Mendenhall wanted Osama’s side of the story.
@jlang20
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