Life in the Game and Beyond by: Tiki Barber

This book is about a man named Tiki Barber and his struggles and accomplishments through life to make it to the NFL and retire as one of the great running backs for the New York Giants. He ran in the NFL for over a decade and enjoyed what he did, but he knew that he wasn't going to be a running back for a really long time and there were other things he wanted to do. The story first begins with Tiki living with his mother and brother. Tiki had a twin brother named Ronde and they were identical twins. Their father left their mother when they were very small, so their mother was working up to 3 jobs at one time to supply her sons with a good education and a good living environment. His mother did just that, Tiki always tried hard in school and he usually acquired straight A's. His brother Ronde never got as good of grades as Tiki but he was a bit more athletic then Tiki. Tiki's mother grew up in the time of the Civil Rights movement and she endured many of the horrible things that most African Americans experienced during that time. She survived her time era and grew up to be an amazing mother for her two songs. Tiki made it through growing up in Virginia and attending a high school there with his brother where they both played football. It turns out both him and his brother were being scouted for their football talents. Eventually, they both decided they wanted to go to the University of Virginia and that is what they did. So Tiki and Ronde played college football for UV for four years before they heard that the NFL was interested in them. They both had achieved such a difficult goal by reaching the NFL. Ronde was drafted to the Buccaneers and Tiki was drafted to the Giants. Tiki was told he was too small to be an every-down running back. So at first Tiki did not play as much as he expected. He was extremely fast but he just was not big enough to take the beating of a great running back. Eventually he bulked up with the encouragement of friends and family members. After a few years of experience in the NFL, he became the running back he always wanted to and he was very good at it. Tiki never played for a different team, it was always the Giants for him. However, Tiki knew football would not last very long because he was losing interest and was plagued with injuries early in his career. Tiki's true dream was he wanted to be a news reporter. There are many different branches of that broad job but he basically just wanted anything that had to do with news. Today, Tiki has fought long and hard for what he did and there are many details that i have missed but that is a basic summary of his journey to the NFL and making i through that. He is now a reporter just like he always wanted to be and he is living a nice life because of all of his hard work. His brother Ronde is still playing for the Buccaneers and continuing his NFL career. Tiki is a very ispirational character because he is what everyone should be like. He is a very modest person and he always tries and works for whatever he wants. He was never very cocky or arrogant and i think that led to his great accomplishments. It was overall a great book and it was fun to read.