Glauber: Strahan cheered while Tiki gets booed

They played together for 10 years and easily were the biggest personalities and best players in the Giants' locker room. Tiki Barber in one corner and Michael Strahan right across the room in another, always drawing a crowd to hear what they had to say.

The career tracks were remarkably similar: star athletes unafraid to bask in the spotlight of the world's biggest media market. Pro Bowl players with million-dollar smiles - Strahan's so wide you could almost fit a football through it.

Amazing how career paths that once were on the same upward track have diverged so remarkably. The difference was never more apparent than last night, when Strahan and Barber joined 28 other Giants legends in the team's Ring of Honor at halftime of the Bears-Giants game.

Boos for Barber, the Giants' all-time leading rusher, and cheers for Strahan, the franchise's all-time sack master.

Had Barber not piped up last week with critical comments about Tom Coughlin's tenuous hold on the team and follow-up remarks questioning its chemistry, there likely would have been a warm welcome. Despite criticisms of Coughlin and Eli Manning in past years, enough time had passed that Giants fans likely would have embraced the former running back.

But Barber, always one to speak his mind, drew the wrath of nearly 80,000 fans who have sided with Coughlin and his ability to keep his team together.

Sad, when you think about it.

It wasn't so long ago that Barber had everything going his way. A fabulous player who retired in 2006 with his health intact, Barber embarked on a promising network TV career with NBC. Was it a year too soon? The Giants won the Super Bowl the following season, with Barber covering the epic win over the unbeaten Patriots and appearing uncomfortable as he interviewed former teammates.

His television struggles continued, and he eventually was released from his NBC contract. A post-career divorce, replete with tabloid headlines about his infidelities, hasn't made things any easier.

Strahan, meanwhile, went out the way every athlete dreams: He returned for the 2007 season and won a Super Bowl. He walked off into his sunset and into a lucrative gig at Fox as an NFL commentator, and even had his own sitcom for a year. A ton of endorsements and immense popularity have given him everything he could want.

Strahan felt for his former teammate, who elected not to be interviewed before the game.

"I read his comments the other day and I don't think they were that bad, but I think with the past history of what was said, it probably should have been a little more choice in his words," Strahan said. "I wish him the best and hope it works out. He's a great player for the franchise, and he deserves to be honored. He carried that offense for years."

Someone asked if Strahan expected Barber to be booed. "I can't tell [fans] what to do,'' he said. "What am I going to do, get on the microphone and say, 'Don't boo the next guy'?

"I think everybody's life is what it is and everybody's path is what it is. He's never been competition to me. We're two different types of people.''

Strahan expressed hope that Barber will find happiness.

"I just hope from a friend's standpoint he's good, because no matter what, you always have a soft spot for somebody you played with for 10 years," he said. "I hope that everything turns out the way he wants it."

Too bad Barber wasn't able to fully enjoy what should have been the punctuation mark on a brilliant career. The boos were a reminder that the ending wasn't what it should have been.