E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

By DAVE KLEIN
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- There was an extra large horde gathered around Tiki Barber's locker, even before he arrived.

But arrive he did, because he is punctual and a man of his word, and because he said he'd be there yesterday afternoon -- and it is all those things that make the man that you might use to indicate that he isn't kidding.

Kidding about what? About retiring.

You could barely see him as he stood in the middle of the pack, cameras and guys standing on stools and many people taller than his 5-10 frame blocking his view. He speaks softly, too, which exacerbated the difficulty.

He had mentioned on Wednesday that he was contemplating retirement, and that this season currently underway might well be his last after what would be 10 years with the Giants, the team that drafted him in the second round of 1997. It should not be a total surprise, he said, because he has talked about it on and off for the last two years with his wife and his twin brother, the Tampa Bay cornerback Ronde Barber.

But his competitive juices still flow smoothly. Someone suggested that when an athlete starts to think about retirement, he is really already retired. Tiki didn't like that. He bridled. "Did you watch me play last week?" he asked, referring to his game against Atlanta in which he carried the ball 26 times and gained 185 yards. "Did you watch me run for 1,860 yards last year? It [retiring] has nothing to do with being physical or with money or with the Hall of Fame. It's all about my desires, and for me to change them would compromise my integrity, would compromise who I am as a person. I always stand by my commitments."

If you want to know what it's really all about, you have to know Barber the off-the-field man. He is well educated. He actually reads. He is steadfast in his competitive drive. He will not deviate from a decision. He is also 5-10 and despite what the roster says he can't weigh more than 190 pounds.

It is also the punishment. "I played in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago and I had [middle linebacker] Jeremiah Trotter kick my butt for 60 minutes," he said. "It does wear on your mind a little bit. All of those factors come into play, but not one in particular pushes me to a decision. It's literally a discussion that I've had with myself and with those close to me for the last year and a half, two years. If you know me, it's not a surprise."

Then someone asked if he anticipated this being a difficult decision at the end of the season. "I really don't think it will be difficult," he said. "I'm committed to my convictions. I always have been. It's what has made me a good football player and it's what will make me successful in anything else I choose to do in my life."

It would seem, then, inevitable that this is the last you'll see of Tiki Barber wearing number 21 (which certainly should be retired if the retirement comes to pass). There is, however, one thing that might prevent him from leaving just yet. It is the not-so-small matter of a ring; to be precise, a Super Bowl ring.

Last year, discussing a possible retirement (soon), he said: "I want to stay until I get the ring. I don't want my brother waving his in my face for the rest of our lives."

But yesterday he said the Super Bowl, which was a "stated goal when the season started," will not be the Golden Fleece that keeps him on his journey. "I don't think it is what will define me as a player," he said. "At the beginning of the season I spoke with Barry Sanders [who also left at the peak of his career] and he said that at some point, you just lose your passion for it [the game]. You get beat up enough times, you realize it's a young man's game and you want to do something else. I have a lot of interests and I never wanted to be solely defined as a football player. I do my job and I do it well but I also realize there are other things that I can do well that I'll get to do eventually."

If he retires, you can bet anything you want that you'll see him and hear him in the broadcasting industry, at least for a while. He has had many experiences on a part time basis and he is, as he says, very good at it.

There was another but smaller crowd in front of reserve running back Brandon Jacobs' locker. He is the 6-4, 264-pound man-child who has come on in a rush. He has become a punishing force and he is carrying the ball more this year than he did as a rookie last season.

"I don't want him to retire, nobody in this room wants that," he said. "But I'm selfish, too. I have to milk all I can out of him before he leaves, and I'm not done learning from him. I'm trying to get him to stay for one more year, which basically is what I assume they're trying to do upstairs [the front office]. We have bonded. Everything I need to know about the position and about being a professional I learn from him, I go to him with everything. We all want him to come back."

But assuming Barber is serious, does Jacobs feel he's ready to take over?

"Yes, I feel like I'm ready. I know what to do now, which wasn't the case last year when I was a rookie. I work hard, just like Tiki showed me by example, and I can now apply what I learn all week to my game."

Physically, Jacobs is the anti-Tiki. He is formidable where Tiki is fleet. He is powerful where Tiki is elusive. He hurts people physically; Tiki just hurts them by making them miss.

"Guys can hit me and hurt themselves," Jacobs said, smiling. "I enjoy not being hit, too, but I enjoy punishing defensive players on the goal line and in short yardage. And you know, it's a good feeling when I hit somebody really hard and I hear that 'whoosh' of breath leave him and I get another three, four, five extra yards."

He said he likes to get after the cornerbacks, and he knows which ones in the league -- at least on the Giants' schedule -- "don't like to tackle." That makes him smile, too. "I know I can get to them," he said. "To me, gaining yards and scoring touchdowns is all I want to know about. It's my job, and I want to do as good as job as Tiki has done."

As he walked into the trainer's room, he had to pass the crowd gathered at Barber's locker. In his deep baritone voice, he started to chant: "One more year, one more year."

It may have fallen on deaf ears.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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