Houston vs. Dallas pits Barber vs. Barber
Posted on August 21st, 2008 – 12:15 PMBy Michael Rand
A member of the Houston Texans’ media relations staff — a Minnesota native and RandBall reader, apparently — passes along a nice little story that had escaped our attention: Dallas will play host to Houston tomorrow night in preseason NFL action, pitting brothers and former Gophers Marion Barber III and Dom Barber against one another. It’s a nice story (though predictably short of commentary from MBIII, who is notoriously shy with the media). We’ll excerpt starting with a quote from the proud father, Marion Barber Jr.
“I’m kind of a sentimentalist,” the father said. “I most likely will cry at some point in the game, but the wife and I are planning on going down Friday morning. It’s so exciting for them and the opportunity that’s been presented to them.”
Barber, a former New York Jets running back, and his wife will be watching their sons appearing on the same field for the first time as pros. They never played together at Wayzata High School outside of Minneapolis and have been teammates only once, during Dominique’s freshman year at Minnesota when Marion III was a senior.
“It would be a dream come true,” Dominique said. “Just the fact to be at the highest level of football and to be on the same field with my brother, I’d be speechless. I’d just go out there and play football.“
And, for the record, we could not find a photo of the two brothers in the Star Tribune archives, so we had to go with that shot of MBIII and former backfield mate Laurence Maroney. The picture was taken right after their last game together, with Maroney presumably about to bite Barber out of shame and anger when he realizes so much talent was expended without a major bowl appearance.
Bringing that up should ensure at least 20 comments each from Dave MN and Jon. But we’ll open it up to the field: what have been the biggest wastes of talent, in terms of missed opportunities by teams, in local sports history?
21 Responses to "Houston vs. Dallas pits Barber vs. Barber"
KG
Let me repeat for emphasis.
KG
KG!
K freakin’ G!!!!!!!!!
has anyone said KG yet?
Moss + Carter+ Robert Smith= No Super Bowl appearances!
This is where I point out that the Bears with Rex Grossman as their QB and a two-headed “monster” of Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson made the Super Bowl.
Barber, Maroney, and Tapeh on the same team, with a ridiculous offensive line. I understand that Tapeh was injured his whole Gopher career, but if he’d been healthy, I would just be that much more convinced on Glen Mason’s complete inability to coach.
There was this Garnett fella who played for the Wolves…
96/97 & 97/98 Wolves teams
KG
Steph
Gugliotta
1st round Exit
Dave’s 2007-2008 Fantasy Football team. All that talent so many injures. Had Dave opened his wallet and actually hired that strength and conditioning coach his team would have benefitted greatly. Instead the penny pinching Dave MN took the profits from early victories and ran. He has now firmly planted himself on the list of most hated sports owners in MN history.
He has now firmly planted himself on the list of most hated sports owners in MN history.
I don’t think “hated” would be entirely accurate, I made bold moves like dropping almost every player I drafted and picking up new ones from waivers. It’s that kind of thinking that makes you barely miss the playoffs, instead of missing them catastrophically.
what have been the biggest wastes of talent, in terms of missed opportunities by teams, in local sports history?
I was thinking last night’s draft fit the bill.
The foursome I’m in; every bachelor party golf scramble.
I don’t remember golfing with you homey?!?
I’d say the years we had:
Santana/Radke
Culpepper/Moss/Gary Anderson
oh and David Ortiz
‘88 Twins [redacted] A’s
‘91 North Stars [redacted] Penguins
‘98 Vikings [redacted] Falcons
‘03 TWolves [redacted] Lakers
‘08 Wild [redacted] Avs
I think they’ll both come out of the game with good haircuts.
The new “Good Sports”
Waste of talent
Re: Good Sports this week
Rand is not holding a microphone, but, rather, a pepper grinder.
He thought he’d spice up the show a bit.
/Off to get pun-ished for that one
The ‘97 Gopher basketball team was good enough to go to the Final Four…
Gopher hockey (2005-2006)
Vikings (1998-1999)
Gopher football (2004: Barber, Maroney, Setterstrom, Eslinger, Spaeth, et al) This one makes me tear up a bit.
Every Gophers hockey season since Lucia became coach (sans the title years, of course)
Oh, and my senior year of hockey…choked in the semi’s with some imported talent.
Imported talent and choking, must be from Elk River.
