Former Giants running back Tiki Barber claims that he doesn’t regret leaving the Giants a season before their Super Bowl run.

“It’s interesting,” Tiki said on his Tuesday night Sirius NFL Radio show, via the New York Daily News.  “My wife asked me that exact question.  Ginny asked, ‘So you have to feel, even just a little bit of remorse that you left early.’  I said ‘Honey, I’m trying to make myself think that and wish I was still there.  But I’m not.  I was done with football.  In my heart I knew I didn’t want to do it anymore.”

But Tiki presumes that, if he had played in 2007, the Giants would still be getting ready to play in the Super Bowl.  Given the disruptive, divisive influence that Tiki had in the locker room, we doubt that the team could have pulled together if he was still pissing and/or moaning about whatever might have prompted him to piss and/or moan at any given moment.

Besides, if Tiki hadn’t retired, who would have helped quarterback Eli Manning commence the process of coming out of his shell?  Tiki’s preseason jabs at Manning arguably went a long way toward getting Eli to develop as a leader, both on the field and off of it.