Tiki Barber had some reason to celebrate this week, his divorce has been finalized. Barber, who wisely destroyed every relationship he had with active NFL players and coaches on his way out the door toward the promised land of a failed gig on the NBC TODAY Show, also desperately sought to revive his previous career last season only to have a single workout for one of the NFL’s worst franchises.

When life hands you lemons…you can add them to your Allagash White and plop in two straws, one for your best buddy and de facto publicist Peter King, right Tiki?

Still, at least he gets to go to bed with this. Multiple news sources are also reporting that Barber intends to marry his mistress. Somebody explain the definition of insanity to the now-broke former NFL star, please.

Tom Coughlin burns the Jets

Winning a Super Bowl can allow a NFL head coach a little bit of candor in his public statements.  Winning two super bowls allows a coach a ton.

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin took full advantage of that yesterday when he couldn’t resist taking a jab at the “cross-town” rival New York Jets and their recent player acquisitions (ie: Tebowmania in NYC). Here’s what Coughlin had to say about the Jets recent acquisitions:

“You know who won the Super Bowl, you know who the world champions are,” he said. “Whether we’re on the front page every day or not, it’s not that important. New Yorkers know.”

Ouch, little bit of a burn there or what? The best part about that statement is that it pretty much rings true. The Giants go about their business, generally not making too many crazy headlines (minus Brandon Jacobs i guess) and they just go and win two Super Bowls in five years. The loudest Giants in the media are ex-Giants Tiki Barber and Michael Strahan.

Meanwhile, over in Jets country, you’ve got Rex Ryan flapping his gums every other week, talking about winning Super Bowls like he is a fat and sober Joe Namith, showcasing the entire team on HBO’s Hard Knocks, making free agent signing splashes that, all combined together…gets them essentially nowhere. Nowhere, that is, if you consider your season to be a bust if a Super Bowl ring was not won.

Anyway, it is nice to see Coughlin finally give up a little of the “hard ass” persona in his interviews with the media. Generally this is a guy who can make Bill Belichick look like charming. Maybe he’s finally getting soft in his golden years?

If so, I am loving it.

Chan Gailey and Tom Coughlin were so stunned by their players lack of performances this week that they offered no excuses for their play. In fact, they pretty much threw them under the bus after the game. Here’s Coughlin first after his Giants dramatic loss to the Vince Young led Philadelphia Eagles :

“My question to them was, ‘Why?’ What did it take to understand what the Eagles were going to be like coming in here? You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that team is 3-6, back to the wall, they’re going to play their butts off. To get where we want to go, we’re going to have to play harder. And better. And we didn’t.”

I mean, isn’t part of being a good coach, at any level, finding ways to get through to your players so they can understand and execute the game plan?  To coach them in such a way that they maximize their talents? Seems to me that Coughlin is kinda passing the buck on this one a bit.  Sure his team played like crap and yes they do share in the blame, but they SHARE in the blame. Maybe Coughlin should’ve found some way to actually get through to his players, surely throwing them all under the bus is not it. For that matter, neither is admitting you couldn’t get your players to play like you want, you know, like a coach is supposed to do.

How about Chan Gailey, head coach of the Buffalo Bills whose once high flying team has lost 3 straight including yesterday’s horrocious 35-8 loss to Miami:

“I wish I could give you an explanation,” said coach Chan Gailey. “I cannot give you an explanation of how we played effectively early in the year and we’re not playing effectively now. We lost that one as a team. Every phases had problems, real problems.

“We’re  not very good right now,” Gailey said. “That’s the bottom line. We’re not. If I knew exactly what the problem was, I’d solve it. It’ s obviously not one thing. It’s things that mounted up on us, and we’re not able to execute the way we were earlier in the year and the way we’re capable of.”

Chan Gailey just admitted to the world he has no idea what is happening with his own team. He has no idea why the team is losing games and he cannot stop the losing because of it. That is your fearless leader Bills players. This man just admitted 1) his team is bad; and 2) he’s not sure why. That is confidence inspiring head coaching there people. His stationary should Chan Gailey, LEADER OF MEN.

Both Gailey and Coughlin should be fired at the end of the year just for statements like these. Their job is to lead and these are hardly the statements of leaders.

Alien baby offspring and evil twin Tiki Barber would like to resurrect his dormant NFL career for anybody who will have him. Unfortunately, Barber has not played football since 2006 and he made sure to shit all over his potential supporters on his way to a failed broadcasting career. But, is there hope? Well, probably not.

Give me a reason to believe, Jay Glazer:

First Tiki sighting. Tiki Barber worked out yesterday w the Dolphins. Heard he looked good, Fins 1st wanna see how their current crop does.

To recap, Tiki Barber did a series of drills and exercises in shorts and a t-shirt in front of people employed by the Miami Dolphins, and then went home. Tiki could have just taken an aerobics class in a first-floor studio by the stadium to accomplish the exact same thing.

(Updated at 11:30am)

The Redskins have a plan and they are sticking to it…what that plan is, who knows. Lets get right into the good, bad and uuuuuugly after two days of NFL free agency:

The Good (so far)

They finally traded McNabb

Sure the Redskins traded away a 2nd and 4th round draft pick to acquire Donovan McNabb but getting possibly two 6th round picks for a guy that whose trade value they utterly decimated over the course of last season is a rather good move.

Ok, seriously, getting ANYTHING of possible value for him would have good. They could have traded the Redskins a box of Brett Favre bobbleheads and anyone in their right mind would have been thrilled.

Ok, honestly, who are we kidding, just getting McNabb off the team is good, getting something for him is merely a bonus.

[Update] They finally traded Haynesworth

Well look at this! The Redskins accepted a 5th round pick from the Patriots in exchange for Albert Haynesworth.  Pats get another troubled athlete that Belichick should be able to get the most out of for a year or two and the Redskins actually get something of value for their troubled and highly over-paid star defensive lineman.

That this happened is rather shocking. That they got a draft pick at all for him after the season and off-season that Haynesworth had is mind blowing. What is going on at Redskins Park? How are these smart trades happening?

Could this be a year without drama for once? HAHAHA, yeah right! Still, good move Redskins!

They made 2 smart free agent decisions (so far)

Signing CB Josh Wilson isn’t the flashiest signing the Redskins could’ve made for their defensive backfield, but it is one of the smarter moves they could’ve made. For just $4.5 million a year for 3 years, they get a guy who has improved every year in the league and was good enough to start on the Ravens’ top 10 ranked defense last season. Topping it all off he’s also a local guy, having played at Maryland.

While he’s not a superstar talent at the position, he is talented and he should at least be able to do what Carlos Rogers did (or didn’t do) last season. Even if he doesn’t work out, this type of player investment, at his age and price, is exactly what the Redskins need to do to fill out their roster.

They also resigned Santana Moss to a 3 year $15million dollar contract, which, in light of what Santonio Holmes and Sidney Rice got from the Jets and Seahawks respectively, looks like a perfectly sane contract for a player of Moss’ stature.

The Bad (so far)

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