Giants legend claps back at ESPN's Ryan Clark over Saquon Barkley comments

New York Giants legend Tiki Barber fired back at former defensive back and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark regarding Clark's comments about the alleged feud involving Barber and new Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley.

"Wow, Ryan Clark," Barber said during Thursday's edition of the WFAN "Evan and Tiki" program, per Ryan Chichester of Audacy and Manny Gomez of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. 

"You are making 'blank' up. Because you don’t know me like that, dude. I didn’t even realize how long you were on the Giants," Barber said. "Your first year, you were a practice squad player, and you were on the defensive side of the ball. What is he talking about, that I didn’t embrace young players?"

According to the Barrett Sports Media website and other outlets, Clark said during a recent edition of "The Pivot" podcast that Barber "taught me what I didn’t want to be as a veteran" when the two were teammates with the Giants during the 2002 and 2003 seasons. 

"Tiki taught me how you don’t make a young player feel welcome," Clark explained. "How you don’t make a young player feel like this could one day be his team. The way he made me feel as a young rookie and a second-year player, I said, 'I don’t ever want to be that dude.' And he’s continued to be that person."

Clark was responding to the much-publicized "dead to me" controversy involving Barber's initial reaction to learning that Barkley was making a free-agency move from the Giants to the division-rival Eagles. The CBS Sports NFL analyst certainly didn't appreciate what Clark had to say about supposed interactions between the two from over 20 years ago. 

"He’s acting like I’m still a player when it pertains to my comments on Saquon Barkley, and he’s kissing Saquon’s a-- to ingratiate himself with Saquon," Barber said about Clark. "His comments make no sense because he’s not talking about someone he knows well enough to talk about."

It's believed Barkley's original "hater" social media post from earlier this week may be related to criticisms Barber shared about Barkley's on-the-field performances in September 2020. Nevertheless, Barber essentially offered Clark a "keep my name out of your mouth" retort on Thursday. 

"So shut the hell up, Ryan Clark. Please," Barber added. "You sound like a fool. You think it’s cool and trendy to make me the bad guy because it makes you cooler and trendier. By all means, shoot away, Ryan...It’s an opportunistic shot that he’s taking because he thinks that he’s gonna gain advantage by being a jack--- to me. Congratulations, Ryan. Good luck in your career, as well."

It's hardly surprising fans on both sides have strong reactions to Barkley going from the Giants to the Eagles, but few could've predicted as recently as this past Monday that the transaction would spark problems between retired players who now talk about the NFL on a weekly basis.