More than four years ago, Tiki Barber retired from football amid plenty of fanfare and commenced a much-hyped career in the media. Four years later, with Tiki’s media career in shambles, he’s coming back to the NFL.
His twin brother, Ronde, is still going strong, preparing for his 15th season in 2011. (If there is a season in 2011.) But as Ronde’s career moves much closer to its end than its beginning, Ronde is thinking about doing after he retires what Tiki tried.
But Ronde Barber hardly sounds enthusiastic about parlaying his pro football prowess into a media gig. Possibly because he knows that, for many former players, the shelf-life is roughly equivalent to a loaf of French bread.
“If you made me say something right now, I would think I’d take a run at something media related, but everybody wants to do that,” Ronde Barber told PewterReport.com. “It is a saturated market. It is kind of a bad market if you ask me. There are so many [ex-players in the media] and so many are not good at what they do. It’s not bad TV, it’s entertaining, but it’s . . . whatever.”
It would be great if Ronde would provide a list of the former players who “are not good at what they do.” Typically, the men who fall into that category don’t last very long.
You know, like Tiki.
Ronde’s concern is that he doesn’t want to make outrageous statements solely for attention.
You know, like Tiki.
“I don’t know if I want to be part of that,” Ronde said. “Maybe I will.”
Of course, Ronde never mentioned Tiki as a former player who isn’t good at what he did on air, or as a guy who made outrageous statements solely for attention.
Then again, did Ronde really need to?
