Michael Irvin has taken a lot of heat for his recent comments about Tiki Barber, some of it coming from our very own New York Giants FanHouse, here, and to a lesser extent, here. And just because it's something that's rarely done, I'd like to defend Irvin for a second.I won't join Irvin in calling Tiki Barber a quitter (though I think it's a pretty fine line between quitting and retiring; it would not be untrue to say that Tiki Barber is quitting football, nor would it be untrue to say that he's retiring from football), but I thought Irvin's point questioning the timing of Tiki's retirement announcement was a point worth making.
Irvin basically said that Tiki Barber undermines his own position of leadership in the locker room by announcing that he won't be back next year. From Neil Best and Arthur Staple of The Advocate:
Barber has been criticized by other commentators, including Irvin's fellow ESPN analyst, Tom Jackson, who last night said Barber's situation "has distracted his team from the task at hand."I don't know what's wrong with that.
Irvin said Barber's status as a leader will be damaged. He imagined being a young player to whom Barber says: "'Michael, let's get it going, get it going.' I'm looking at him like, 'What are you talking about? You're quitting on us.'"
Irvin's guessing at how other Giants players might react. Michael Irvin knows what NFL locker rooms are like, and he knows how NFL players think. This is a perfectly rational point to make. And honestly, I couldn't blame a younger Giants player if he was unwilling to take criticism from someone who he knows is not committed to the long haul.
Barber responded by calling Irvin an idiot, and questioning his acumen as a journalist, which I think is odd, because Michael Irvin has nothing to do with journalism, nor does he claim to. Dictionary.com defines "journalism" as "the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing, or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organization as a business," and that seems to be completely unrelated to Michael Irvin ... or Tom Jackson, Dan Marino, Terry Bradshaw, or Jimmy Johnson, for that matter.
Those people are not journalists. They're NFL football analysts, and it's their job to offer opinions on the game and its players. It is not Irvin's job to report, write, or edit news. Questioning Michael Irvin's skills as a journalist is sort of like questioning Jay-Z's skills as a classically-trained pianist. Tiki might want to brush up on some of these things before landing that sweet TV gig.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-26-2006 @ 9:45PM
Stephanie Stradley said...
Okay, admit that you laughed some when you found the picture for this entry.
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10-26-2006 @ 9:56PM
mjd said...
Oh, I laughed a great deal... I couldn't have laughed any harder if she was wearing red sequin pants...
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10-27-2006 @ 12:35PM
Keith Frey said...
First of all I live in New Orleans and hate the Giants. With that said, I have to defend Tiki anyway. You say Irvin's comment was "A perfectly rational point to make"?!?! Are you kidding me?? It's a ridiculous point to make. Tiki is not quitting. He's retiring ... NEXT year. No player worries about NEXT year until THIS year is finished. How many players out there are in their last year of their contract and don't have a new one in place and are threatening to explore free agency. Is that quitting on the team? No. They have a right to do what's best for themselves. Tiki has had enough and is calling it a day. That's his choice. But he's not doing it right now. He's doing it ... again ... NEXT year. A lot of athletes announce that they will retire at the end of a season (Kareem and Ripken immediately come to mind)so they can have their swan song. What's wrong with that? Do you think young Oriole players didn't accept Cal's leadership because he was retiring at the end of the year? I don't think so. Did they give up on that season because Ripken wasn't going to be there the NEXT season? That would be ridiculous. Besides, the earlier the franchise knows, the better so that they can start making contingency plans. Ricky Williams ... quitter. Willie Roaf ... quitter. They left their teams in a bad situation. Tiki is playing out the year. They have a playoff and Super Bowl run to be concerned with so if any of them are thinking about opening kickoff in the Fall of '08 they need to get their heads on straight. And Irvin of all people should know this. As for as a distraction to the team, I doubt when Eli's dropping back for a pass he's thinking: "Man ... I can't believe Tiki won't be here in '08." Or when Strahan is grappling with a lineman, is he thinking, "what's the use ... Tiki's going to retire at the END of the season." C'mon man. That's ridiculous. When Kareem was being presnented with rocking chairs during halftime at visiting arenas, did the rest of the Lakers give up due to the distractions. Again ... ridiculous. Sometimes these talking heads just say things without thinking them through, which is clearly what happened here but now they're stuck defending a stupid statement. Maybe that does make them idiots.
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10-28-2006 @ 2:28AM
Brockmeyer said...
I happen to be a Giants fan, but you make valid points. Tiki's comment about Irvin needing to get a clue on how to be a journalist was dripping with condescension, it ignored the fact that Irvin, unlike Tiki, has never held himself out to be a journalist. Irvin and Jackson are employed by ESPN to offer their analysis and opinions, which is what they did here.
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11-25-2006 @ 3:21AM
Chuck Harden said...
Michael should be fired for comments he made saying that to be a great athlete , you have to have some brother in you. Pretty much tha same thing Jimmy the Greek said. he was fired that night.If a white guy said that , he'd be embarressed and fired and most importantly ...He'd be wrong.He sux, he always suck just a little less than s.sharpe.
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