NFL

Tiki: Sapp’s ‘an idiot’ for ripping Strahan

Tiki Barber played his entire 10-year career with the Giants, all with Michael Strahan as a teammate, and that bond remains strong. Barber has heard Warren Sapp mouth off on Strahan for years now, and the most recent salvo by Sapp certainly caught the attention of the Giants’ all-time leading rusher.

“Warren’s an idiot,” Barber said yesterday while attending the Big Daddy Celebrity Golf Classic at Oheka Castle in Huntington. “He just wants to say things to be idiotic. I played with Stray for my whole career — he is the greatest of the great. He is a great teammate, he kept things light, but on game day he was as serious as a heart attack and it showed in his play.”

For years, Sapp and Strahan have engaged in a he-said, he-said verbal battle, usually instigated by Sapp, the former Bucs and Raiders defensive tackle. Sapp last week said former NFL defensive end Simeon Rice — his teammate in Tampa — was the superior player to Strahan, who retired after the 2007 season with 141.5 career sacks, fifth on the league’s all-time list.

“Nobody ever talks about Simeon,” Sapp said in quotes published in the Tampa Tribune. “Simeon was a better rusher than Michael Strahan any day of the week and twice on Sunday.”

Sapp also insisted Strahan’s sack totals were inflated because he lined up the bulk of his career against the opposing right tackle, not the top offensive lineman on the left side.

“Warren doesn’t know, never played with him,” Barber said. “I don’t put any credence in his opinion.

“I hope Stray doesn’t let it bother him. I don’t think it does.”

* Giants WR Brandon Collins, a second-year player from Southeast Louisiana, has been suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2013 regular season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

Collins was in training camp with the Giants last year and is a long shot to stick on the roster this season, competing in a crowded field at wideout. He’s eligible to participate in training camp — which begins July 26 — and play in preseason games, but he’s not eligible to return to the Giants’ active roster until Sept. 30, after the Sept. 29 game against the Chiefs.

* The Giants continue to have interest in Vonta Leach, one of the top fullbacks in the NFL, now that Henry Hynoski underwent knee surgery and likely will not be ready for the start of the season. “The Giants called us on the first day,’’ Leach said on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Then from what I’ve heard things are picking up a little bit more.’’

It doesn’t sound as if Leach is in any hurry to sign with anyone.

“There’s really not a rush for anything right now because you can’t do nothing on the football field right now,’’ he said. “As long as we’re in somebody’s camp, I’ll be all right.”