Former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber retired from the NFL after the 2006 season, and since then he has shared his opinions on the league and other sports on his CBS Sports Radio show Tiki and Tierney. One of the biggest stories of the NFL offseason is Tom Brady signing a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after spending the last 20 seasons with the New England Patriots. PopCulture.com recently caught up with Barber, and he said while he thought Brady would stay in New England, he thinks signing was the right call.
“I’ve known (Buccaneers head coach) Bruce Arians from the day I was born since he and my father were graduate assistants at Virginia Tech,” Barber said to PopCulture.com exclusively. “I’m not surprised at all because Bruce is a genius and a quarterback savant. He’s got a really good team down there. While I thought Tom was going to stay in New England because it just felt like the right way to end that story. I think he was looking for a new challenge in these last couple of years, but with great weapons. When you look at it after completion, it makes so much sense. In real-time, it felt a little odd watching the greatest quarterback to ever do it leave the organization that he did it at. But now that it’s done, it makes so much sense.”
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Brady is walking into a situation where he has a talented set of offensive skill players and a young defense anchored by Shaquil Barrett, who notched 19.5 sacks last year. In 2019, the Bucs finished with a 7-9 record due to then-quarterback Jameis Winston throwing 30 interceptions along with his 33 touchdowns. The Bucs are hoping Brady is the one missing piece that can get them to the Super Bowl, but the question is will there be an NFL season due to the coronavirus pandemic?
“I’m going to assume they are going to be postponed, but I do think they’ll both be played, college football in particular,” Barber said. “It’s such a revenue generator for the athletic departments of some of these universities, and without the billions of dollars that come into the NCAA and distributed to those universities and athletic departments, some of them might go under. Even if it’s a couple of months delayed, I think the NCAA fall schedule is going to happen because of the money that’s involved.”
