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Aw, how cute. Big brother Peyton stepping into defend his little bro. After all, Peyton does know a thing or two about teammate feuds. We're all quite familiar with the Mike Vanderjagt tiff. Peyton Manning didn't call Tiki Barber a 'drunk, idiot running back,' but he did have this to say:
“Ex-players truly become ex-players right away, the No. 1 job is to criticize players ... I’m pretty defensive of all quarterbacks. Eli is my brother. I’m very loyal to my family. I’d rather you criticize me. I don’t think anybody knows what it’s like to be a quarterback except a current quarterback. Sometimes former quarterbacks forget what it’s like. You cannot play quarterback at any level — you’re in a leadership position. To do it for three years in high school, three years as a starter in college, taking your team to the playoffs — you are a leader and you’re a good leader.Tiki Barber is having a successful start to his media career. Creating controversy out of thin air is part of the job description. Everyone knows what Tiki is trying to do and we should just leave it at that. Next thing he'll do is say he faked an injury when trying to sell a book.
“It’s supposed to be a code, teammates to teammates. That’s the problem we’re going to have with ex-players going to the media. When I retire, I know what I don’t want to do.”
Manning Makes Strong Defense of Manning (NY Times)
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