Tiki Barber, the 36 year old New York Giants career leading rusher and twin brother of Ronde Barber, is working on making a comeback to the NFL. In case that doesn’t ring a bell, Tiki is also the guy that cheated on his pregnant wife with a 23 year old intern. Remember him?
Today Tiki is talking about his battle with depression after losing his post football career as an analyst for Football Night in America. Once the news of his affair broke, Tiki was demoted to on-field duties and eventually fired losing his $2 million per year paycheck. That’s when his depression kicked in. My educational background is in Psychology so my rudimentary Psych 101 self understands how depression comes about and how it can affect a person. I’m not unsympathetic to the struggle. Depression is a serious illness. That still hasn’t stopped my grown up, responsible self from thinking “Whatever, dude”.
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After listening to the details of Tiki’s depression, what stands out the most is his lack of responsibility for where he is in life. “I was in a bad marriage”. Did you know that before or after you starting bouncing on the intern? Did you think that maybe you should have talked to your pregnant wife first? “The NY Post was stalking me.” Really? It isn’t because they found you that irresistible. It’s not my role to determine the rights or wrongs in a relationship and who you love but Tiki, you were married to your high school sweetheart and she was pregnant with twins when you decided that you wanted something different. No one likes “that guy”. And that’s the guy that you’ve become. Thirst is nothing. Image is everything. Your thirst has likely irreparably damaged your image.
So now you’ve crawled out of your depression convinced of the notion that your 36 year old body can make a successful comeback to the NFL. The likelihood of that scenario working is about as likely as me hitting my dougie centre court at Wimbledon. For the sake of all involved, I hope that Tiki is more realistic and hasn’t staked his mental stability on his football career. Both my Psych 101 self and my grown up, responsible self truly wish Tiki the best in spite of his questionable decisions.
