Burress and Barber

Two ex New York Giants have an interesting road on their ways back to the NFL. Both have intriguing stories including incarceration and adultery.  Plaxico Burress and Tiki Barber find themselves on similar paths of redemption.

Plaxico Burress played for the Giants from 2005 to 2009.  In 2007 he won a Super Bowl with the team.  He shot himself in a New York nightclub and served two years in prison because of the incident.  Burress was released from prison earler this month and is hoping for a Michael Vick-like comeback to the NFL.  Even though Burress has been out of the league for two years, he is still 6′5″ tall and 240 pounds.  He has over 500 receptions in his career.

Barber never went to prison, but after ten years in the NFL retired from the Giants.  He rushed for 1662 yards in 2006, his last season with the team.  Since then Barber went on to pursue his career as a broadcaster with NBC.  That didn’t work out so well for him.  In an interview with Bryant Gumbel he explained how in football when he struggled with something he could go to his coaches.  But, broadcasting was different because he didn’t know how to go about correcting his weak points.

Barber caught a lot of flack from the New York Media for a couple different reasons.  He was critical of teammates after leaving the Giants and his extra-marital relationship has been well chronicled.  Barber reportedly left his pregnant wife for a younger blonde, which probably didn’t gain him any popularity in female audiences.  In the same interview on HBO, Barber said to Gumbel “(Everyone thinks) kids solve things, they actually make them worst.”  To me, that is somewhat of a villainous quote.

Again both players will be highly coveted in the free agent market.  The thing a team must seriously consider is that Barber is now 36 and Burress 34. Burress has been out the league two years and Barber four.  But, if your team is looking for veteran players that can share their experience and “wisdom” and contribute a particular skill set one of these guys could be a short term solution.  It will be interesting to see how these two return to the league.  Will they have  a Micahel Vick story or one more like that of former Lions’s receiver Carlos Rogers.