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From the New York Times:
By JOHN BRANCH
Published: February 13, 2007
Officially, Tiki Barber’s football career is over. On Monday, Barber’s retirement papers were sent to the Giants, the National Football League and the league’s players association.
The former running back will become an NBC television personality, people with direct knowledge of the negotiations said. Barber, the Giants’ all-time leading rusher who retired from football at age 31 after one of the best seasons of his career, will be a news correspondent for "Today" and is expected to have a role in the network’s Sunday night football broadcasts.
Barber will begin his duties with NBC in April, the same month he turns 32. Exact terms of his multi-year, multi-million dollar contract are unknown. NBC is expected to announce Barber’s new role in a news conference as early as Tuesday.
NBC was one of several suitors for Barber’s broadcasting talent, broad smile and recognizable one-name moniker. Other networks that were also negotiating with Barber included Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, and Fox News. Barber served as a host for the “Fox & Friends” morning news show once a week until his contract expired last fall.
Barber has little interest in becoming the latest ex-athlete to sit on a panel and pontificate about the game he used to play. Instead, Barber wants to be a do-it-all news broadcaster. He has often cited Matt Lauer, the co-host of “Today”, as the type of broadcasting personality he hoped to become.
Now, he will be working with Lauer at the popular morning program.
By retiring from the Giants, Barber walks away from a non-guaranteed contract through 2008 that was scheduled to pay him a base salary of $4.15 million per season.
But Barber has never wanted to be defined solely as a football player, and had grown anxious about his long-term health. Barber rushed and received the ball 2,803 times in his 10-year N.F.L. career, and his 15,631 yards from scrimmage rank 10th in league history. While he avoided serious injury in his playing career, Barber increasingly seemed more intrigued by meeting the movers and shakers of the political world than by moving and shaking through defenders on the football field.
He pondered retirement from football the past couple of years, and decided early during the 2006 season that it would be his last. His intentions became public in October, igniting debate about his loyalty to the team and his desire to finish the season.
Barber shook off the criticism. He rushed for 1,662 yards, fourth in the N.F.L. The season before, he had a career-high 1,860 rushing yards, and led the league in combined yards rushing and receiving.
By JOHN BRANCH
Published: February 13, 2007
Officially, Tiki Barber’s football career is over. On Monday, Barber’s retirement papers were sent to the Giants, the National Football League and the league’s players association.
The former running back will become an NBC television personality, people with direct knowledge of the negotiations said. Barber, the Giants’ all-time leading rusher who retired from football at age 31 after one of the best seasons of his career, will be a news correspondent for "Today" and is expected to have a role in the network’s Sunday night football broadcasts.
Barber will begin his duties with NBC in April, the same month he turns 32. Exact terms of his multi-year, multi-million dollar contract are unknown. NBC is expected to announce Barber’s new role in a news conference as early as Tuesday.
NBC was one of several suitors for Barber’s broadcasting talent, broad smile and recognizable one-name moniker. Other networks that were also negotiating with Barber included Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, and Fox News. Barber served as a host for the “Fox & Friends” morning news show once a week until his contract expired last fall.
Barber has little interest in becoming the latest ex-athlete to sit on a panel and pontificate about the game he used to play. Instead, Barber wants to be a do-it-all news broadcaster. He has often cited Matt Lauer, the co-host of “Today”, as the type of broadcasting personality he hoped to become.
Now, he will be working with Lauer at the popular morning program.
By retiring from the Giants, Barber walks away from a non-guaranteed contract through 2008 that was scheduled to pay him a base salary of $4.15 million per season.
But Barber has never wanted to be defined solely as a football player, and had grown anxious about his long-term health. Barber rushed and received the ball 2,803 times in his 10-year N.F.L. career, and his 15,631 yards from scrimmage rank 10th in league history. While he avoided serious injury in his playing career, Barber increasingly seemed more intrigued by meeting the movers and shakers of the political world than by moving and shaking through defenders on the football field.
He pondered retirement from football the past couple of years, and decided early during the 2006 season that it would be his last. His intentions became public in October, igniting debate about his loyalty to the team and his desire to finish the season.
Barber shook off the criticism. He rushed for 1,662 yards, fourth in the N.F.L. The season before, he had a career-high 1,860 rushing yards, and led the league in combined yards rushing and receiving.
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