WFAN afternoon host Tiki Barber has been the subject of criticism for his opinion on New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley leaving the team to join the Philadelphia Eagles. ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark recently joined the list of Barber’s detractors, and the Giants legend thinks he went too far.
“SaQuan earned that deal to Philadelphia, what he had to go through in New York to get through this point being a franchise tag last year. Now we’re going to get to Tiki. Tiki taught me what I didn’t want to be as a veteran,” Clark said on an episode of The Pivot podcast. “Tiki taught me how you don’t make a young player feel welcome, how you don’t make a young player feel like this could one day be his team.
“The way he made me feel as a young rookie and a second-year player, I said I don’t ever want to be that dude. And he’s continued to be that person.”
Tiki Barber did not respond well to the comments when hearing them on Evan & Tiki Thursday.
“Wow. Ryan Clark, you are making blank up. Because you don’t know me like that, dude. What is he talking about? I didn’t embrace young players? Ask Brandon Jacobs…if I embraced him,” Barber said, adding he “honestly doesn’t remember interacting” with Clark when the two were teammates on the New York Giants. “Now that he’s a big wig at ESPN, he thinks he can just take shots and his word is gospel? He’s making a story that fits his agenda.
“He doesn’t know me well enough to talk about me. So shut the hell up, Ryan Clark. Please. You sound like a fool. You think it’s cool and trendy to make me the bad guy because it makes you cooler and trendier. By all means, shoot away, Ryan.”
Tiki Barber continued his takedown of his former teammate by claiming the ESPN NFL analyst is ignorant.
“He’s uninformed. He doesn’t know me that he doesn’t know me like that. Don’t talk about me like that. You don’t know me like that. You don’t know my relationships with my team, my former teammates, the organization, but you act like you know. You speak in a nice, calm, controlled way. It’s not true. It’s an opportunistic shot that he’s taking because he thinks that he’s gonna gain advantage by being a jackass to me. Congratulations, Ryan. Good luck in your career, as well.”
