There is an ongoing debate among football fans on whether former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is worthy of having his bust enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
That’s a question we’ll have to wait at least five years to find out the answer to. One former Giant, running back Tiki Barber, believes it shouldn’t even be a question of whether to not his former teammate goes in to not — a stance he has expressed previously.
“It’s not even a question. He’s got two Super Bowl championships, two Super Bowl MVPs. He’s top 10 in passing yards and touchdowns. The statistics are there,” Barber said on MSG’s “150 At Home” on Wednesday night.
“And you go to the narrative, it’s storybook. The coming rival, the New England Patriots, are having the most perfect season imaginable. It’s a foregone conclusion that they are going to beat the Giants. And we know what happened. David Tyree via Eli did the miraculous. It’s a narrative that doesn’t seem real. And Eli was the orchestrator of it. In the postseason, he always showed up. And to me and I think to a lot of people, that will be the deciding factor on whether or not he’ll be a Hall of Famer.”
Barber himself has some Hall of Fame numbers, but he hasn’t gotten much consideration since his retirement in 2006. Tiki also provided his thoughts on the Giants’ upcoming season.
“I’m excited for the Giants this year. They may rebound faster than a lot of people expect,” Barber told hosts Bill Pidto, Alan Hahn and Camron Smith. “They addressed certain things in free agency, particularly at the linebacker position and obviously the draft went well also. I think there are good things to look for in the Giants this year even if there is uncertainty because the whole staff and system will be new.”
That system, on offense anyway, will be run by former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, the Giants’ new offensive coordinator under head coach Joe Judge. Barber and Garrett were teammates with the Giants from 2000-2003.
“I think with Jason now at the helm of this offense, you’re going to get experience at using diverse offenses. Jason has so much depth in his game planning and playbook. And I think we’re going to see a bunch of that. And especially with Daniel Jones being such a young, second-year player — you don’t want to put too much on his plate, especially when you have a revamped offensive live and a special player in the backfield,” he said.
As for Jones, Barber likes what he sees from him and even paid Jones the compliment of comparing him to Manning, like so many other have.
“I was down at that Tampa game, his first start last year,” said Tiki. “It was inspiring. It was awesome to see his athleticism and his ability to not get flustered under pressure. He reminded me so much of Eli when Eli was a young player with the New York Giants and he started to get it. I think these young players are now getting it much faster than they did a decade and a half ago.”
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