Tiki Barber criticizes Tom Brady for criticizing Daniel Jones, cites production-meeting ban

Like Tom Brady, Tiki Barber is a former player who now serves as a television color commentator. But unlike Brady, Barber does not own a minority share of an NFL team. And because Brady owns a portion of the Raiders, the league does not allow him to attend the intimate, off-camera production meetings between network talent, coaches and players in the 24-48 hours before kickoff.

And for that reason, Barber said Tuesday, Brady likely didn’t know important details before criticizing Jones on FOX’s national Thanksgiving audience.

“If you have any kind of conversation with anybody on the Giants, you are not saying that,” said Barber, who routinely attends production meetings prior to CBS games with partners Andrew Catalon, Jason McCourty and AJ Ross.

Barber explained that Brady and others who criticized Jones didn’t know he was simply a scout-team safety during a walk-through, not a full practice, and there’s a huge difference. But Barber was most disappointed that Brady fueled the perception without context that the Giants prohibited Jones from physical activity due to the injury guarantee in his contract.

“The reason he asked for his release is that they wouldn’t even let him work out,” said Barber this week on WFAN’s Evan & Tiki on SNY. “Going to the gym, lift weights, do anything that’s physical; he couldn’t do it. So, he’s going to sit around for five weeks, six weeks and basically be a potato and do nothing?

“So, if you have a conversation with the Giants, a production meeting about all the stuff that’s actually going on, that most people aren’t privy to, you don’t say what you just said on the air. … I don’t think Tom is privy enough to the information he needs to be to have that conversation about Daniel Jones like that, to criticize Daniel Jones. That’s just wrong of Tom.”

Brady, who agreed to a 10-year, $375 million contract with FOX while he was still on the Buccaneers’ active roster, is with Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi on Sunday to call the Bills-Rams showdown at SoFi Stadium (4:25 p.m. ET, FOX). Barber and his crew are in Nashville to call the Jaguars-Titans contest at Nissan Stadium (1 p.m. ET, CBS).

For more information, visit the N.Y. Giants team page and the broadcast page at ProFootballPost.com.