Video from HBO's Real Sports, Plus Early Reaction to Tiki's interview
See below for notable early reactions to the interview.
In his Monday Morning Quarterback column, Peter King writes:
Following up on Sports Illustrated's excellent Tiki Barber profile by L. Jon Wertheim comes a revealing interview Tuesday night on HBO's Real Sports by Armen Keteyian. "It's a story about [Tiki's] road to redemption, trying to make himself whole again,'' Keteyian said. "There was a richness, an honesty in the interview that I found riveting.'' The most interesting thing, according to Keteyian, was that after Barber's colossal failed marriage, taking up with a 23-year-old NBC intern, and getting dumped by NBC: "There was almost a level of self-destruction here -- he wanted to blow up this life he created and start over.''
The interview's good. I watched a review copy Sunday.
Read the rest of MMQB here.
On ProFootballTalk.com, Mike Florio had this to say:
One of the more intriguing stories of the 2011 offseason will come to a head at some point after the lockout ends.
Will anyone sign Tiki Barber?
He’s been out of the game four years, but he gained more than 2,000 in each of his final three. One failed media career and a collapsed marriage (complete with young intern girlfriend and pregnant wife) later, Barber has opted to try to re-enter the spotlight via the skills that put him there in the first place.
Complicating matters is the fact that he plays one of the most fungible positions in pro football, where a stream of young, cheap, and healthy ball-carriers will likely be more attractive than a 36-year-old locker-room lawyer with more baggage than Cher on a three-week vacation.
In a sit-down with Armen Keteyian of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, an advance copy of which arrived this morning via FedEx, Barber talks about the events that transpired after the first phase of his football career ended. At one point, Keteyian asked Barber whether he embraced self-destruction in the hopes of starting over.
We recommend watching the entire interview, which debuts Tuesday, June 21, at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. The full piece is almost enough to make Tiki sympathetic.