A Kindly Plea For Tiki Barber To Shut The Hell Up

Tiki Barber, from all accounts, seems like a rather charming fellow. He's handsome, smart and obviously talented and comfortable in front of a camera; you don't just fall into a spot alongside Matt Lauer by stuttering and stammering. (This is why CBS went with Katie Couric rather than Eric Dickerson.) Barber's so good on air that you can almost forget that everything he says pretty much marks him an asshole.

Listen, we're no big fans of Tom Coughlin, but Barber's continued thrashing of the Giants coach — even going so far as to say he'd still be playing football if it weren't for Coughlin — is self-aggrandizement in its worst form. Neverminding that Barber, pre-Coughlin, was a fumbling machine; mostly, we just are amused by the fiction that poor little Tiki had his love for the game taken away by the screaming man with the headset. Barber knows what he's doing; these little New York media feuds are exactly what keeps people like Barber with their names headlining everything. It's a crock.

Remember Rick Reilly's column about Barber, right after he announced his retirement? The one where Barber talked about how important it was to him to leave the game while he could still walk, while he was still healthy? And that's why he had retired? Was that bullshit, Tiki? Or is this bullshit now?

Please Shut The F$%* Up, Tiki [PopJocks] Tiki Barber Upset That Tom Coughlin Made Him Good [Randball]