Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Tiki Barber Speaks On NFL Comback & Failed Broadcast Career

The last time we saw Tiki Barber he was trying to make a go of it in broadcasting. Barber got a great gig after retiring from the New York Giants as a feature reporter on the Today show and a studio analyst on NBC's Football Night In America.

Turns out he wasn't that good and NBC let him go. Now Tiki Barber wants back in football.

Wednesday Tiki Barber got grilled by Mike Francesa on WFAN radio in New York. Click on the icon below to hear it. It's pretty good.

Enjoy the grilling RIGHT HERE

Here's a taste of Francesa's interview with Tiki Barber:

Francesa: "Well Tiki are you coming back to football because you miss it or are you coming back to football because you just had a big failure in broadcasting."

Barber: “I think you’re throwing a little bit of hyperbole out there, Mike, because I didn’t have a ‘big failure’ in broadcasting. I think if you laid the stage as you and Chris at the time tried to, that I was (to) be the next Matt Lauer, yeah, you could say it was a failure. But I had a lot of fulfillment at NBC. I did a lot of great stories that I think had impact over the three years that I was there.”

Barber: “You’re putting it in simple terms. And if that’s how you need to do it, Michael, fine, you put it in simple terms. But I don’t consider my time at NBC a failure.”

Francesa: “The guys at NBC, and I know all of them, they felt that you did a bad job and they said that they thought you were entitled. I mean, they were not complimentary about your work. Let’s not run away from that, this is part of the story.”

Barber: “If you tell me who it was and you get that person on air, I will have a debate with them. I think that’s cowardly of someone to talk behind someone’s back and not tell them, because the truth of the matter is, I don’t know what I could have done better at NBC.”

“I respect you because I think you have a great knowledge about sports and about the game of football. Do you always do it the correct way? I’m not sure. Do you interview people the correct way, because we’re talking about my life here. I’m not so sure.”

“Mike, I understand what you’re saying. You’re not wrong but you’re also not right. Because to characterize the three years that I had at NBC as abject failure is just wrong. It’s just not correct.”

By the way, Tiki Barber's agent joined in to referee but this was a very contentious interview.

And great radio.

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