NY Giants running back Tiki Barber visits with Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv
Photo: Tal Shahar
Tiki Barber is a more familiar pose: hurdling a defender on the way to the goal line
Photo: AP
Tiki Barber seeks local impact
NY Giants star running back, admittedly unknown here, on his first visit to Israel, hopes to impress spirit of cooperation and teamwork among Jews, Arabs
TEL AVIV - Tiki Barber says the Arab kids he met in east Jerusalem didn't know who he was, had never seen an American football, and certainly didn't know how to throw or catch it, but they responded to his presence and his message of teamwork and cooperation.
Barber, star running back for the New York Giants of the U.S.-based National Football League, is in Israel for the better part of the week as a guest of the Peres Peace Center.
In that capacity, Barber has so far visited several Peres Center projects, including a "Sports for Peace" project at kindergartens in Jerusalem, and the Peace Soccer School in Issawiya, an Arab village in east Jerusalem.
His last stops were set to include girls' basketball and boys' soccer in Jerusalem, Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat, among other locations.
Barber told Ynetnews in an exclusive interview that the most surprising element of his short visit was, "the Arab kids looked just like the Israeli kids." Up close, they didn't seem so different, he said.
Teamwork and cooperation
But Barber, who is active in numerous charitable activities in the U.S., as well as being an eight-year veteran of the violent and often brutal N.F.L., said it may be another generation before attitudes change and people work together.
Barber said he hopes to transmit a message of cooperation and teamwork, and that even the most bitter of rivals on a football field can be friends off the turf.
He said he is looking forward to his next few days in Israel, relaxing and traveling with friends and his wife.
"We're going to the Dead Sea, and see if we really float," he said, as do many first-time visitors to Israel.
"My wife, who can't swim, is worried. I can swim."
On the subject of football, and the upcoming 2005-2006 NFL season, Barber said he is focused on working with the Giants, whose record last year was a hapless 6-10, get closer to the playoffs and Superbowl.
Barber, who last year set single-season and career rushing records for the storied Giants' franchise, said his goals now are fixed only on the Superbowl, in which he has yet to play.
"We play in New York, and you know that if you get into the Superbowl from New York you will be a legend," he said.
