Tiki Barber might be trying to work his way back into the good graces of the Giants and their fans.
First, he defended Michael Strahan against Warren Sapp after the former Bucs star repeatedly ripped Barber’s former Giants teammate. Then he publicly stated he was hoping to have a sit-down with coach Tom Coughlin after taking shots at the two-time Super Bowl champion after retiring. Now, he’s propping up Eli Manning, another one of his post-playing targets, saying the Giants’ quarterback has a chance to be among the best of all time and is already better than his brother.
“The expectation was that he was never going to be Peyton,” Barber said on his CBS Sports Radio Show.
“I remember having these conversations with people who watched Eli in college, saying, ‘He’s good, but he’s never going to be Peyton, he’s not Peyton.’ Guess what? I think he’s better than Peyton. Because of clutch. What matters in sports? It’s winning and losing. You get to the stage and what do you do? Eli’s gotten there and he’s won.”
Eli has won two Super Bowls to Peyton’s one and seems to save his best play for the postseason. Barber played three seasons with Manning before retiring after the 2006 season. Before the following season, Barber, then an analyst for NBC Sports, questioned Manning’s leadership skills.
Eli led the Giants to the Super Bowl that season and to another four years later. And now Barber says Manning can be a top-five quarterback — not just currently, but all time.
“For Eli to crack the top five of all time, he’s got to have a 2011 [type of] season a couple more times and win another Super Bowl and be Super Bowl MVP, and then I think he’s in the discussion for the top five [quarterbacks] of all time,” Barber said.