Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney were back on air, just in a new home, Monday as their show debuted on WFAN in New York City. This is the first time Tiki Barber, former New York Giants running back, will be broadcasting for an exclusively New York audience. Barber and Tierney discussed the negative reactions Barber once received from fans for some comments on then head coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning.
Brandon Tierney mentioned that in the run up to the show’s launch on WFAN, some people still wanted to talk about the way Barber ended his playing days with the Giants and what that may mean for their listeners.
“I think history has almost blurred what you said about him,” Tierney told Barber in reference to his comments about Eli Manning in 2006. “What you said was not malicious! At all!”
While some of the comments may have been less controversial in hindsight, Tiki decided to clear up a few of the topics.
“I had my issues with Tom. Everybody knows them, I wasn’t the only one, so I don’t care what you think my relationship is with him. Eli and I have a good relationship and we always have, we never didn’t.”
Barber reiterated the fact that when the Giants, Coughlin and Manning included, won the Super Bowl shortly after he retired, he was happy for them. All of them.
He did not shy away from his opinion on Coughlin but complemented his coaching ability. “We had our issues. He’s a great coach. I will never ever ever discount how good of a coach he is. He just didn’t treat people the right way.”
Tiki Barber was a little shocked that this is still an issue for some people. He said that he doesn’t lose sleep over the fact that he doesn’t have a Super Bowl ring. He did say that his biggest mistake was thinking that the Giants weren’t close to winning a title, but at the same time, he was ready to put football behind him.
An interesting note for all of us at BSM is that this topic may have come up on the first edition of Tiki and Tierney on WFAN because of our own Demetri Ravanos.
Earlier this week, he asked Tierney if he had “any concerns about interacting with a vocal Giants fan base that has a love/hate relationship with Tiki”. While Tierney did not call out Ravanos or BSM by name, it seems possible that this was the catalyst to revisit Tiki’s exit from the Giants on air.