[ThePundit]

On his first full day as a retired player, Tiki Barber lobbed a hypothetical hand grenade yesterday during a news conference to announce his hiring by NBC.

Barber several times suggested Giants coach Tom Coughlin set the wheels of his retirement in motion because of the "physical grind" through which he put players.

Barber first invoked Coughlin by saying, "The grind started to take a toll on me and the principles of our head coach started taking a toll on me, so I started looking for the next thing."

"While it didn't show up a lot on Sundays because I had my three best seasons under him, and I give him a lot of credit of that, I could feel a difference."

Barber said the team practiced in full pads all season despite numerous injuries and said that eventually "you physically don't want to be out there when your body feels like you do in full pads.

"While it probably doesn't have a really detrimental effect on how you practice or play, it does on your mind, and if you lose your mind in [football], you lose a lot."

Barber said he discussed his concerns with Coughlin and the coach gave a little, such as when Barber told him he could not go full speed in some practices. Still, it was not enough.

"He has changed in little ways," the former running back said, "but I think he still has to come more. The game has changed. Players are different, and you have to understand them and get to know them in order to encourage and motivate them to be successful"Coach Coughlin was nothing but great for me as a player, but the grind took its toll on me and it really forced me to start thinking about what I wanted to do next," he said..

Tired of Tom - Newsday.com

[Lefty Noob]

So basically he's saying Coughlin works his players too hard in practice, am I right? Same complaint the Browns had about Butch Davis. Guess what, guys... you want to win, you've got to work hard and pay the price. I'm sick of these millionaires whining and crying about being overworked. Everytime Tiki opens his mouth, I like him a little less. I mean, never mind the fact that Coughlin pretty much single handedly cured his fumbling problem... he's a jerk because he make people work hard in practice.

[kenman923]

Tiki, if you don't like Coughlin, who do you want? Rich Kotite?

[EmpireWF]

Although I greatly dislike how Tiki is coming out and talking all this smack after the fact (why not be a man and do it while your a member of the team?), some people want to point to the heavy workouts as a reason why so many Giants players get hurt. But I don't know if it's a serious accusation.