Yet Another Career Fumble?

Tiki Barber is hoping that lightning will strike twice and that he can revive a once-promising NFL career despite taking four years off, being dogged by scandal over leaving his then-pregnant wife for a 23-year-old Today Show intern, and having money woes.

Although it’s perhaps those financial strains that are pushing the former record-holding New York Giant back, who will be 36 by the time he reenters the game should a team pick him up, into the sports spotlight. The New York Post reports that the real reason Barber is interested is he’s having a hard time keeping up with spousal support, especially after NBC fired Barber amid the cheating scandal, nixing his rumored $300,000 a year salary on Today. In July of 2010, his former business partners sued for $1 million over breach of contract, citing Barber’s adultery as the reason that clients are backing away from a new Spinning studio venture.

And Barber didn’t leave on good terms. In 2006, pre-Charlie Sheen’s warlock and tiger’s blood rants, Barber badmouthed head coach Tom Couglin and quarterback Eli Manning, saying his coach’s attitude towards players helped push him toward retirement.

Back then, Portfolio.com asked branding experts if Barber had a chance at a comeback. Shawn McBride, vice president and director of client service of Ketchum Sports & Entertainment Public Relations, wasn’t surprised to see just how badly Barber’s image has been beaten. “When people like Barber or Kobe [Bryant] reach a certain status that makes them brands, they need to carefully protect their image,” he said in an interview. “If Barber’s brand were a stock, it would be in a sort of free fall right now.”

“If I were advising him, I’d start talking about a public strategy. He has to show remorse, but it has to be in a humble manner. And, most important, it has to be genuine,” McBride added. “Because anything that’s not genuine will ring hollow to today’s media-savvy audience.”

Other brand experts suggested that focusing on his philanthropy would have been the right course of action to show consumers that he’s still committed to doing good.

But Barber didn’t do any of that. And perhaps that’s why the Giants immediately said publicly that even though they have Barber under contract, they’ll release him as soon as possible with their best wishes.

While it’s true that Barber may have had an easier time dealing with his tarnished image if he were still on the playing field at the time that the scandals broke, coming back now is almost laughable. “I find this hilarious. And sad. And ridiculous. Of course, he has no career left doing anything else, so why not try to play football again?” wrote blogger Ed Valentine of BigBlueView.com.

Former Giants linebacker and current NFL commentator Antonio Pierce had this to say of his ex-teammate to ESPN: "Tiki Barber, the football player, great player, will be very productive probably in certain situations, third-down, maybe can help out a young quarterback, some young running backs, depending on who it is. Tiki Barber, the leader, the person in that locker room? He is not going to do anything for your team."

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