Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
DAVE GOLDBERG
Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Reggie arrived Sunday and Tiki left, a changing of the guard for elite, elusive running backs. New Orleans' 30-7 win over Tiki Barber and the New York Giants on Sunday was Reggie Bush's coming out party as an NFL back: 126 yards on 20 carries, almost double his previous high of 67 on opening day.
He almost threw in a 57-yard punt return for a score. It was overturned on replay when a Giant was spotted brushing him just before he got up and ran after diving over a couple of potential tacklers.
Barber? He was left with the bile of the latest embarrassment in his team's fall from 6-2 to 7-8. It was his final game in Giants Stadium and the Giants went all out to celebrate him, making him the only player the team introduced before the game, then celebrating his career on the Jumbotron at halftime.
It probably wasn't coincidental that the Giants did all their celebrating off the field, having abandoned any semblance of form on it.
Barber might have a part in that.
Just after he announced 10 games ago that he will retire at the end of the season, the Giants won three in a row. Then the collapse began and they since have lost six of seven. That hasn't stopped him from talking about his future constantly, contributing to a general lack of focus that has plagued the Giants in the second half of the season.
But at least he talks. Bush didn't - not this day. Despite entreaties from the Saints' public relations staff, he went out the back door to meet his family for Christmas in New York.
So it was left for New Orleans coach Sean Payton to discuss the two. Payton mentored Barber when he was offensive coordinator of the Giants from 2000-2002, and Barber gives him credit for turning him from a third-down back and kick return man to a full-time runner.
"They've got some similarities, some characteristics," Payton said. "Tiki's obviously done this a long time now and he's been a durable, dependable, reliable, smart Pro Bowl running back. So that would be a good goal or a good role model for a guy like Reggie to look to."
On Sunday, Bush was the role model, although in truth, there was nothing Barber could do about that.
Barber finished with 16 carries for 71 yards, but they were meaningless. The Giants got 67 yards on their first possession, 55 on a touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress. They got 75 for the rest of the game and never took a snap in Saints territory.
"It's not a good product. It's an embarrassing product," Barber acknowledged.
And obviously not the way he wanted to go out.
"I gave my hat to a little girl and got a kiss and walked off," Barber said - the little girl being one of the few fans left in the stands that emptied early in the fourth quarter.
"I really don't have a lot of overt emotions about it. I know I'll miss it. I know I'll miss the players, the coaches and the fans. But life is about aspirations and it's time for me to go on to something else.
"I will leave this stadium with pride. I wish I could give the fans a win, 200 yards and four touchdowns. But this is a team game and we are beat up, discouraged and dejected. It's not good and it's not a good feeling. I feel bad for the fans. I hated this, but I'm ready to move on."
Bush is just starting.
Off his performance Sunday, he may equal Barber, who with Marshall Faulk and Roger Craig are the only players ever to rush for more than 10,000 yards and catch passes for more than 5,000. But that's in the future. He scored a 1-yard touchdown on a reverse, a Jerry Rice specialty, leaving the very quick defensive end Osi Umenyiora grasping at air, then sitting on the turf looking bewildered.
Too bad he wasn't around to talk about that or any of the other things he did on Sunday.
Hopefully, that won't be part of his future.