Tiki Barber is leaning towards retiring at the end of this year [Archive]

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Brooklyn

10-18-2006, 08:31 AM

According to the New York Times, (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/sports/football/18giants.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=468ada292fe08d49&ex=1161230400&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1161181628-TjOvBbzXm45GYnrF0dcKDw) Barber is likely to retire at the end of this year.

I'm disappointed because he is still obviously an elite back. but I think they are in pretty good hands with Brandon Jacobs.

football junkie

10-26-2006, 11:50 AM

It would be a disaster of epic porportions if in 2007 the Giants started their season with Brandon Jacobs at running back. He's a short-yardage, goal line back, that's all. (He's there to convert third and short. Starting him would be like starting Ron Dayne or T.J. Duckett. They might put up seductive numbers in a small sample of carries but if you gave them 300 carries in a season you'd end up with about 700 rushing yards.)

Luckily there is a running back rich draft class coming out for the 2007 draft.

Listening to Tiki during his Monday Night Football interview left me confused. He said he had made the final decision to retire five or six months ago. If that's the case, why didn't he inform the Giants so they could have had the 2006 and 2007 draft to look for an eventual replacement?

Then Tiki started talking about how his passion for the game had diminished and how his body couldn't take the physical pounding anymore. I just scratched my head and thought to myself, "then why are you still playing?"

He then quickly added that he is still playing to win a Superbowl -- the most overused cliche in all of American sports.

I think he's still playing because he wants to do the Tiki Barbar victory parade. I don't think he gives a damn about his team or reaching the Superbowl. I think it's all about his image. That's right his image -- he didn't want to be perceived the way Ricky Williams was when Williams left the game abruptly. So he goes through the motions for this year while he plans the next phase of his career -- supposedly as a broadcast journalist.

Now I see today that he is calling people who criticize his retirement, "idiots". This is a guy allegedly trying to break into the media and he's calling his fans in New York, the biggest media center on the continent, idiots? Not real bright Tiki. Speaking as an ex-pat I can safely say, New Yorkers have long memories.

EaglesFan

10-26-2006, 02:05 PM

He might retire sooner...

NEW YORK—Giants running back Tiki Barber, who had earlier announced his retirement pending the end of the 2006-07 NFL season, advanced his timetable for retirement to a specific play in the Giants' upcoming game against the Buccaneers. "By the midpoint of the third quarter of Sunday's game, I intend to take the handoff from [quarterback] Eli [Manning], cut inside the right tackle, and bounce to the outside to avoid linebacker Derrick Brooks," said Barber, who otherwise plans to treat Sunday "just like any other game." "Once in the open field, I'll avoid pursuit by my brother Ronde and go out on top by retiring from football in front of my family and the world's greatest fans." After taking his final bows and shaking the hands of all players and coaches present, Barber plans to change into a stylish but understated gray suit, and return to the sidelines, where he will interview himself for ESPN.

Link (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54498) :)

Hawaiin Lion

10-27-2006, 04:28 PM

Giants/Jets Legend

11-01-2006, 05:45 PM

:( :( :( It's sad to see him go. Especially since he still has another year or two in him.

football junkie

11-01-2006, 07:33 PM

Running backs seem to have become a disposable commodity in the league. Emmitt Smith and Eddie George retired after 2004. Last year alone the NFL lost Jerome Bettis, Marshall Faulk and probably Curtis Martin and Ricky Williams.

This year Tiki retires.... It just doesn't seem like that big of a deal anymore. As proof that teams are willing to burn out RBs I give you the case of 29-year-old Shaun Alexander. In the 2004 regular season the Seahawks handed the ball off to him 353 times. The Seahawks made the playoffs that year and he got 15 more carries in the team's wildcard loss, bringing his regular season and playoff total to 368 rushes and 24 receptions. In the 2005 regular season alone he carried the ball 370 times. In the playoffs he was handed the ball an additional 60 times -- bringing his total to 430 rushes and 18 receptions.

In two seasons that's 798 carries! That doesn't even count his pre-season carries or the passes he catches in the regular season and playoffs. Is it any wonder Alexander couldn't even make it through three games this year?

To put that into some historical perspective, in 1998 Jamal Anderson had 410 rushes. He was never the same player again. In 2000 Eddie George had 403 carries. He was never the same player again. That workload has been an average year for Alexander since 2003!

Tiki is 31 years old and his combined regular season and playoff carries last year were 381, to go along with 58 receptions. This year Tiki is on pace for 354 regular season carries and 66 receptions. The Giants are 5-2 and headed for the playoffs again. You can look for Tiki to get somewhere between 30 to 60 carries depending on how deep the Giants go in the playoffs. Factor in his 381 carries from last year and his 354 projected regular season carries this year and the middle ground of the playoff scenario -- 45 carries -- and Tiki is likely to have carried the ball 780 times in the last two years by the time this season is over.

Is it any wonder he doesn't want to come back next year and probably blow out his knee in week two or three?

Here's the deal, NFL organizations realize that there is a steady stream of talented running backs leaving the college ranks ever year. In any given draft there are usually several highly productive backs who can be had as late as the second round. So to borrow a phrase, the NFL's opinion of RBs is...smoke 'em if you got 'em.