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Giants RB Tiki Barber to retire after this season
Tiki says he's done
Giant in rush to retire
By RALPH VACCHIANO
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Tiki Barber has been hinting at retirement for more than a year, and in many ways he's been preparing for it since the day his NFL career started. Yesterday, however, he came as close as he ever has to making it official.
"For all intents and purposes," Barber said, "this is it."
Since Barber isn't ready to make an "official" announcement, that served as his unofficial declaration that the 2006 season will be his last.
After 10 years, the Giants' all-time leading rusher has grown tired of both the regimented life of an NFL player and the constant beating his 5-10, 200-pound body has had to absorb. So he's ready to move on to what will surely be a lucrative, post-NFL broadcasting career.
According to his business agent, Mark Lepselter, they have been approached by ABC, CBS and NBC about possible opportunities "both on the news and the sports side." And considering Barber's successful stint on Fox & Friends and Fox News, they expect that network to try to re-sign Barber when his contract with the network expires in January.
"Not that we ever doubted the opportunities we'd have," Lepselter said, "but we've just had more than we ever could have imagined."
Of course back in training camp, when Barber first said this season "could be" his finale, the 31-year-old admitted he had some intriguing offers during last offseason, too, but nothing that convinced him to quit the sport he had played since he was a kid. A few more offers have come in since then, but something else has helped changed Barber's thinking.
"What's changed since the summer is, quite honestly, he's five games into another season and football hurts," Lepselter said. "I've never seen him beat up like I did this year after the Indianapolis game and the Washington game in particular."
"I've been thinking about retirement for awhile now," said Barber, whose contract with the Giants runs through 2008. "And with each week and the poundings I take, I feel I'm likely to move onto something else."
How likely? Well, early yesterday on a conference call with the Dallas media, Barber said, "I don't think there are any definites in life. It's too early in the year to say it for sure, but I'm leaning toward it for sure."
A few hours later, however, he told the Daily News "I know this is my last season." Asked if there was anything that could change his mind, he said, "I can't say nothing, but there's nothing."
Barber also said, "I kind of want to go out on my own terms," which he knows gets more unlikely with each passing year. He holds Giants records for rushing yards in a career (9,320), a season (1,860 last year), and a game (220 last Dec. 17). And though he shows no signs of slowing down (he rushed for 185 yards in Atlanta on Sunday and was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week), he insists he can't be tempted by that to hang on for one more year.
"A lot of guys talk about retirement when they feel like they don't have it anymore," he said. "For me it's not about that. It's about other things - things that have literally been in place for me for eight years."
Those things include his budding TV career, the show he does with his brother, Ronde, on Sirius NFL radio, the children's books they've written together and other "more advanced books" in the works. He believes he'll have some opportunities in the financial world, too.
"Most of the guys in the league, if they have to get their car washed and pick up their dry cleaning on Tuesday, they are completely overmatched," Lepselter said. "Tiki does it a little bit differently. He's a businessman who happens to be one hell of a football player."
In another two to three months, he probably won't be a football player anymore.
Said Barber: "I don't know if there is anything that would change my mind."
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