Tiki Barber knows all about being labeled a fumbler. The former New York Giants running back had issues holding onto the football during the course of his 10-year career and had 35 fumbles (17 lost) in a four-year span from 2000-2003.
Tom Coughlin took over as the Giants coach in 2004 and one of the first things he did was go to work on Barber's fumbling. In fact, Barber was taught an entirely new way to hold the football . Over the last three seasons of his NFL career, Barber had a total of nine fumbles with four lost. That wasa major improvement for a guy who had fumbled the ball nine times each season in 2000, 2002 and 2003.
So Barber certainly knows what he's talking about when it comes to this subject and is qualified to comment on the fumbling issues Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has had. Peterson fumbled twice in the Vikings' loss to New Orleans in the NFC title game and admitted that a third fumble on a botched exchange with Brett Favre was really his fault.
Overall, the gifted running back has rushed for 4,484 yards but fumbled 20 times in three regular seasons, losing 13 of them.
"You know what? He's becoming a liability for that team," Barber told WFANin New York (via www.sportsradiointerviews.com ). "You look at that conference championship game. It's all mechanics. It's the same thing Ihad to learn. You do something one way for so long, you get away with it and you don't think it's a problem. Once you get in the National Football League -- safeties, linebackers, defensive linemen -- they're all taught to strip. If you have any kind of looseness in that football, it's going to come out. For me, it was just keeping it next to my body at all times, no matter what it takes.
"Whether it's down here close to your body, up at your chest close to your body, you have to keep it on your body so it can't get knocked away. And then when you go in to contact, cover it with your other hand. It was simple. Most things that cause success are simple.
"I think with Adrian Peterson, he needs somebody with authority -- with a strong voice -- to tell him, 'Look, as great as a player as you are, you're a liability.' And that's what Tom Coughlin did with me. He said, 'Tiki, I love the way you play the game of football, but you fumble and you're a liability.' It hits your pride in a way that makes you want to correct it, and I don't think anybody's ever done that for Adrian Peterson yet."