Tiki waves goodbye to NFL
HONOLULU – Tiki Barber’s aloha Pro Bowl turned nightmarish for Drew Brees, who will be rehabilitating a significant arm injury for a second off-season in a row.
Barber, 31, ended his football career the way it began 23 years ago – with twin brother Ronde as his teammate. Their NFC team lost an entertaining game to the AFC, 31-28 on San Diego Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding’s 21-yard field goal as time expired.
The New York Giants running back is expected to move into a career in television, including some NFL analyst duties, after 10 seasons and 10,449 career rushing yards. Barber received a standing ovation from the Aloha Stadium crowd of 50,410 following a video tribute to his career with 1:40 remaining.
“I couldn’t have scripted a better ending than to play my final game with my brother,” Barber said. “Friday night, myself, my brother and my wife, Ginny, hung out at the hotel bar, just talking, dancing the night away, savoring one last night as teammates.
“I’m just real happy I achieved all that I have and proud I get to go out on my terms.”
It’s a good thing Brees paid for San Diego-based personal trainer Todd Durkin and his wife to make the trip. He’ll be leaning on Durkin heavily again. The New Orleans Saints quarterback, who led his team to the NFC Championship game, suffered a dislocated left elbow after a first-quarter incompletion. Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs tackled Brees low, and the NFC starter fell on his elbow.
There was no fracture. But Saints officials indicated the quarterback will be shut down from six to eight weeks.
“You never want to hurt anybody, especially because you’re just playing for fun,” Suggs says. “I hope he’ll be all right.”
Brees threw for 26 touchdowns and a league-best 4,418 yards in his return from a torn labrum and rotator cuff damage inside his throwing shoulder suffered in the San Diego Chargers’ 2005 regular-season finale.
“That’s one of the worst things you ever want to see in a game like this,” Westwood One radio analyst and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason says. “Thank God it’s Drew’s left elbow, not his throwing elbow.”
Says Pro Bowl MVP Carson Palmer, who threw two touchdown passes: “Just knowing Drew and how hard he fights and works, he’ll come back fine.”
This time last year, Palmer was home rehabilitating his left knee after shredding his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in a 2005 wild-card playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“This is a huge honor, and I feel very blessed to be here,” Palmer said after completing eight of 17 passes for 190 yards. “But my goal is to be in the Super Bowl and to win a Super Bowl.”
Tiki’s farewell touchdown came on a 1-yard second-quarter run. His lone disappointment was throwing an interception to the Ravens’ Ed Reed on a first-quarter, halfback option pass designed by singer Jimmy Buffett when NFC coach Sean Payton was out on Buffett’s boat a few days before Super Bowl XLI in Miami.
While Tiki’s playing career is over, brother Ronde will return next season.
“Having Tiki retire is not going to diminish my love for what I do,” the Tampa Bay cornerback says. “But this is a great memory.”
Afterward, Barber and Super Bowl XLI MVP Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts hugged.
“Tiki’s been great to my younger brother, Eli, who thinks the world of him,” Manning said of the Giants starting quarterback. “I just wished him good luck.”
Commissioner Roger Goodell joined in saying aloha, Tiki.
“Tiki’s been such a great performer for this league, but he’s also been such a great individual,” Goodell says. “It’s great that he’s able to play with his brother in his last professional football game.
“The good news is that Tiki is not going to get too far away from the NFL. He’ll still be involved in some fashion as one of our broadcasters.”