Tiki the difference maker

Last season we heard from Tiki Barber - often - on how bad a coach Tom Coughlin is. It continued through this year in a book he published, accusing Coughlin as being the reason for Barber going into an early retirement.

Barber was considered by many (outside the locker room) to be the leader of the Giants. We heard and read a lot about the Giants being "Tiki's team."

Barber criticized the head coach, and his quarterback.

To a man, the Giants that have publicly responded, blasted Barber.

Under Barber, Eli Manning showed little to no signs of progression from his rookie year until...well, until Barber left. This is largely the same team that Barber left.

Yet now they click.

Interesting that not a single former Giant teammate of Barber's has come to his defense, but they have all rallied around their coach and their quarterback. Even Terrell Owens, a noted locker room cancer, still had (public) supporters in the San Francisco and Philadelphia locker rooms after burning those bridges with nuclear devices. Barber has had none. Zero. Zip. Not one former teammate has come out and said anything even vaguely like, "look, Tiki's a good guy and a friend. He's not here this season, so he doesn't know how Eli, or Coach are this season," or even, "based on his experience here the last couple of seasons, Tiki's not saying anything that's not true, but it's a different atmosphere this year."

But none of that happened.

Instead, the biggest difference that Barber has made for the Giants this season was to take his divisive, malcontent attitude out of the mix.

Interestingly enough, the team got even better when their trash-talking, injury-prone tight-end ended his season on the injury list. The two biggest trash talkers (sure, Barber didn't talk trash so much about the opponents as he did his own team) on the team either leave or have absence enforced on them and the Giants get better and are headed to the Super Bowl. Coincidence? I think not.

Tiki the Beeyotch

Tiki Barber in his soon-to-hit-the-stands autobiography reportedly blames Tom Coughlin for his recent retirement.

According to multiple sources, Barber wrote, "If Tom Coughlin had not remained as head coach of the New York Giants, I might still be in a Giants uniform, (Coughlin) robbed me of what had been the most important thing I had in my life, which was the joy I felt playing football. I had lost that. He had taken it away."

He also claims that the Giants shorted him $10 million in what he was worth as a top flight running back.

Let's start with the money - as a player, if you don't like what they're offering you, then don't sign the contract. Nobody held a gun to your head and made you sign. Don't use the franchise tag as an excuse either. If you're getting franchised, you're still getting the money. So stop whining about money.

Now, let's deal with the Coughlin thing. Don't pin this on him. He saved your career.

In 2003 Barber was 4th overall amongst running backs with six fumbles lost, and near the bottom of the league in fumbles total with nine. It was his fourth straight season with at least eight, and the third of four seasons with nine. There were whispers that the Giants were frustrated with his propensity to put the ball on the ground. Scouts talked about him as a third-down back and wrote pieces that attributed his fumble-itis to the fact that he just wasn't built to be an every-down back.

It was believed that Barber, in spite of his great yardage, was likely to end up on some other team's roster as a change of pace back.

Not the most lucrative of positions - certainly not compared to starter's money.

Coughlin came in and fixed him. The coach changed the way Barber carried the ball. In the three subsequent seasons Barber fumbled the ball a total of eight times. Coughlin made Barber one of the premier backs in the league.

For that, he gets an ungrateful pissant retiree who is engaging in revisionist history to make himself feel better about retiring early.

If he can't separate facts from the fictions in his mind, I'd really prefer it if Barber just went quietly away...although, at this point I would settle for him just going away.