A Tiki Among Men
The NY Giant’s official website reports,
Tiki Barber – one of the metropolitan area’s most popular athletes and a nationally-known star – is going global. This offseason, Barber spent time relaxing in Barbados and recently spent two days in Prague taping a commercial for PowerBar. On Monday, he leaves for a week-long trip to Israel.
But this is no ordinary junket. Barber is visiting the Holy Land at the invitation of Shimon Peres, the former Israeli Prime Minister who shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. In addition to visiting religious shrines and cultural attractions, Barber will make an appearance on behalf of the Peres Center for Peace, which seeks to build an infrastructure of peace in the Middle East while advancing cooperation and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. One of the many ways the center advances this goal is through sports, by having Israeli and Palestinian children play together on sports teams. Barber is going to speak to young athletes – male and female – at the Twinned Peace Sports Schools.
“There isn’t really a mission (on the trip)” Barber said. “It is part vacation. It is part a cultural experience. And I guess a historical experience. But then in a small part it is to be an encourager of cooperation through sports.”
The irony of this man being named for an object of avodah zarah is not lost on me. (c/o Shred)