Asked to name the biggest confrontation he ever had with anyone in a locker room, former Giants running back Tiki Barber said that was an easy answer: Tom Coughlin.
Barber said on the Morning Show that he and Coughlin had an obscenity-laced argument in 2006 after Barber complained that the Giants had turned in “a pretty pitiful performance all the way around,” and criticized the team’s offense. Coughlin was furious to read those words on the paper the next day.
“Tom Coughlin comes into my meeting room,” Barber said, “and he has all these newspapers and throws them in my face. Like, physically, in my face. . . . ‘What the F is this?’ And throws them in my face.”
Barber said he dropped “like, a thousand” F-bombs back at Coughlin as “we ended up yelling at each other for 40 minutes.”
Overall, Barber said, he had a real problem with Coughlin’s “My way or the highway” attitude.
“Tell me, ‘do something because I say so’? I’m not going to accept that,” Barber said.
Barber said he always played hard for Coughlin, and he thinks even Coughlin would have to admit that. But those 16 Sundays a year were the only days when they got along.
“On game day, I never had a problem with Coach Coughlin,” Barber said. “But personally, we did. We just didn’t mesh.”
Barber is one of the best players in the history of the franchise, but it’s not surprising that the team has had more success since he left. When a star player and the coach are butting heads and dropping thousands of F-bombs on each other, it’s not good for anyone.