Tiki Barber, the former New York Giants star who recently announced his desire to attempt a comeback into the NFL, managed to stick his foot in his mouth once again in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated.
According to a report from National Football Post, Barber told the magazine how he and his new girlfriend, his former babysitter Traci Lynn Johnson, have been avoiding scrutiny from the media.
I'll let the report speak for itself:
The former New York Giants running back tells SI how he and Johnson have moved into the attic of his agent Mark Lepselter.
“Lep's Jewish,” Barber is quoted as saying, “and it was like a reverse Anne Frank thing.
Trust me, you didn't read that wrong; Tiki just compared himself to a Jewish girl hiding from Nazis during World War II, who was eventually found and died in a concentration camp.
At this point, given all the times Tiki has either stuck his foot in his mouth, done a lousy job on television or made flat-out terrible life decisions, there's only one possible explanation: he's trying to screw up his career.
For those who don't remember all of the ridiculous things Tiki has done since retiring back in 2006, let's review, shall we?
When Barber retired, he told fans and reporters that he was tired of playing football at age 31. But, his future looked bright with his gregarious, outgoing public persona and million-watt smile, and he seemed destined for a lengthy career in the broadcast booth as an analyst.
But a funny thing happened on the way to stardom: Barber wasn't all that good at being an analyst. His predictions were seldom right, he quickly started laying into former coach Tom Coughlin (only to watch as Coughlin and the Giants won the Super Bowl) and he wasn't really all that likable on the air.
Still, NBC stuck with him on their Football Night In America pregame show, hoping his lack of skill on camera was just early jitters. At least, they did until they found out he was sleeping with a former intern, who was also his family's longtime babysitter, in the aforementioned Traci Lynn Johnson.
Barber wasn't done with that scandal yet though, forcing NBC's hand by leaving his wife, who was pregnant with twins, for the 22-year-old Johnson. Shockingly, shortly after Barber's affair was revealed, he was fired by NBC. Since then, he's bounced around a bit, doing spot television work here and there but never sticking anywhere.
Tiki has yet to stop with his lousy predictions and harsh criticisms of the Giants even as he's fallen out of favor with the public, but the real clincher came a few months ago. Barber announced he was planning to return to football, despite not having taken the field in five seasons, having effectively burned most of his bridges in the NFL and having previously told reporters that the reason for his retirement was losing the fire to play the game.
Now, we've got Tiki comparing himself to a Holocaust victim, simply because he's living out of his former agent's attic.
See? Barber's words and actions since retiring from football have made little sense and on occasion, are just plain dumb. It sometimes seems like he's trying to figure out exactly what he needs to say or do to get himself in trouble, and his latest boneheaded comments embody his post-retirement career perfectly.
Given Barber's already-flagging popularity, one would think he would avoid referencing one of the greatest atrocities in human history when discussing his own struggles with bad press. Clearly though, Tiki missed that memo.
I have no idea what was going through Barber's head when he made that comment, but I can bet we'll get an apology in the next few days. Even so, Tiki has continued to make himself look worse and worse as time has gone on, criticizing players and coaches, cheating on his pregnant wife and continually sticking his foot in his mouth.
Can Tiki save his career? Of course. He just needs to apologize for some of the dumb decisions he's made in the past, and the boneheaded comments about being like Anne Frank and about current football players, and he can still salvage some sort of career.
But first, someone needs to save Tiki from himself. He's shown he can't be trusted not to get himself in trouble, so a publicist would be a good idea from here on out.
Of course, given how he's managed to implode a once-promising media career, even that might not be enough to save him from himself.
