Tiki Barber Formally Introduced As New NBC Personality

Tiki Barber (r) To Work With Matt Lauer On NBC’s “Today”

Former NFLer Tiki Barber’s three-year contract with NBC to work on “Today” and “Football Night In America” is “worth roughly” $6M. He will begin working on “Today” on April 16 (N.Y. TIMES, 2/14). Barber reiterated that he “no longer will do product endorsements once his contracts with companies including Cadillac, McDonald’s and Johnson & Murphy expire” (HARTFORD COURANT, 2/14).

TAKING ANOTHER SHOT: Barber implied during his NBC press conference that he retired from the NFL in part because Giants coach Tom Coughlin worked him too hard. In Newark, Steve Politi writes Barber “clearly had an agenda with his comments.” Politi: “In his new job, he better get some accountability and credibility. ... Barber was always a self-promoter, but his latest swipe at Coughlin is a lame attempt to bring attention to an otherwise mundane introductory press conference” (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 2/14). But in N.Y., John Branch writes that NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol “compared Barber’s potential to that of the golf analyst Johnny Miller, unafraid to anger players with honesty.” Ebersol: “If you’re that open before you come [to broadcasting], that sort of answers that age-old question: Well, are you going to be prepared to speak to your new constituency, which is the viewers and the fans? Or are you going to still be worried about who is behind you in the locker room? I think he’s answered the question repeatedly, while he was in the game” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/14).

NEW FRIENDS: NBC’s “Today” show crew welcomed Barber to the show and the network this morning. Host Matt Lauer: “He’s going to start here in April, and at the very same time, we also announce that we’re starting a network flag football league. You want a piece of us, you let us know.” Barber himself was not on the show, but “Today” aired footage of yesterday’s press conference (NBC, 2/14).