You may not be a fan of either Tiki Barber or Eli Manning.  You may feel that it was wrong of Barber to "bail out" on his team last season.  Maybe you have no opinion on the two at all.  However, can you really say that Tiki Barber was wrong in what he said about Eli Manning?

 First of all, these types of situations always get blown out of proportion, with quotes being repeated without the conversation included.   When I first heard about this, I heard that Tiki was asked the question, and answered it.  He didn't come out and volunteer this information.  He couldn't ignore the question, especially with his new job being to answer those types of questions.  He answered the question, and that was that.

 Now comes the part on whether you agree or not.  Eli Manning and the Giants certainly took offense.  Of course they would.  But can they really say that Tiki Barber was wrong?  Sure, mention all you want about how Tiki announced he was leaving the team in mid season, and going in to retirement.  Remember two things though.  Tiki never came out publically with this announcement.  It was mentioned in a sit down interview, and then it was released to hype up the interview.  Tiki didn't call a press conference and make an announcement, he just answered a question.  Second, you can blame Barber for announcing his retirement, but you can't say that he had a negative effect on the team.  Tiki Barber was the Giants offense.  The Giants had the 7th best rushing attack in the league last year, and that wasn't because of Brandon Jacobs.  Half of the plays that the Giants ran went to Tiki.

 Going back to the retirement announcement, can you really blame Barber?  He's at the top of his game, and from this point on he can only go down hill with his abilities.   So does he keep playing, knowing that he is going to be involved in half of the Giants plays, and knowing that this will take a toll on his body later in life?  Or does he retire before he enters his regression, but while he is still a marketable name, and move on to the next thing in life.

The real question is, would anyone else do it differently?  If you had a grueling job at a lumber mill, working 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, and you were offered a desk job that paid the same or better, and allowed you to work fewer hours, would you stick around with the job that is going to shave years off of your life, or do you move on to something different?  Eli can't really blame Tiki for doing this.

Back to the issue at hand, we ask ourselves "Was Tiki Right?"  He questioned Manning's leadership abilities.  He questioned whether Manning could make the big play when they needed it.  Tiki was right though.  If Eli Manning's name was Charlie Frye, we wouldn't be having this conversation, because he'd be riding the bench, or keeping the starting job warm for some rookie.  Manning is an average quarterback who doesn't play well in the big games.  Last year he had two interceptions in losses to Chicago, Tennessee, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, and 3 interceptions in a loss to Seattle.  He threw for just 74 yards against New Orleans in week 16.  In the playoffs he threw for 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, and 161 yards.  That's decent, and that is Eli at best.  He's a decent quarterback at times, but most of the time he is average.  You aren't taking him in your fantasy drafts this month.  You've probably got 12-15 people infront of him, because he's not that good.

 Barber was just telling the truth.  Maybe you've got a problem with him doing this.  Maybe you've got a problem with how he left the team.  Maybe you agree with him, but think he took it a little too far.  However, you can't tell me that you don't agree with him, because he was telling the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts...especially if you are Eli Manning.