I was surprised by the comments of Tiki Barber on Saturday night. The question was about the leadership of Eli Manning and Tiki pretty much proclaimed himself as the team leader (last season) and he made a comment that on one occasion Eli's pre-game speech was actually comical. It struck me as a bit mean spirited. Eli, to his credit, blew off Tiki's comments and he also made some observations about Tiki's leadership last year.
Tiki Barber is a class guy and was a great running back. When Tiki was drafted by the New York Giants Rodney Hampton was their main running back. Barber was drafted in the second round and was seen as the second coming of Dave Meggett. Meggett was drafted in the 5th round by the Giants in 1989 and was very much a part of their Super Bowl team. Meggett was great out of the backfield on third downs. He ran draw plays and was an excellent receiver and punt returner. Tiki Barber was not a huge guy and many people believed that he'd be the some kind of change of pace player that Meggett was and, like Meggett, it was presumed that Barber would not have the size and endurance to be a feature back.
Tiki, however, became the best running back in NY Giants history and demonstrated that he did have the ability to be the feature back. Great player.
The thing is, last year, while playing really well, Tiki got carried away with, well, Tiki. Tom Coughlin, his coach, is not the easiest guy to get along with or like, but Tiki seemed to delight in taking shots at Coughlin with the press. Actually, Barber seemed to like to take a lot of shots at his team and many people believed that when he told the world that he was retiring, his leadership ability bid a fond farewell.
Enter Eli Manning, the quarterback, Peyton's little brother.
Peyton Manning is a great player. Great passer, great play maker, great leader. He has a dynamic and fiery personality.
Eli has a bigger arm and has made some great plays and some awful plays. He has a very different personality from Peyton. Where Peyton is fiery and dynamic, Eli is very, very cool. I remember, years ago, watching Joe Namath and Johnny Unitas play. Namath was fiery and dynamic; Unitas was cool. Both were great.
Eli is young. He's had great moments and bad moments. It isn't all that atypical of a young quarterback. I'm wondering, if by getting Eli mad at him of Tiki Barber is finally showing the leadership to his former team that he failed to give them when he was playing last year.
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