Barber wasn’t sure he could play college ball, now he’s going into NFL Hall of Fame on Saturday

By Jerry Ratcliffe

When Ronde Barber first arrived to Virginia’s football program in 1993, he wasn’t sure he belonged. The product of Cave Spring High School in Roanoke only weighed in at 149 pounds.

He looked around and wondered if he was big enough, strong enough to play at this level of football. Barber was redshirted while his twin brother, Tiki, wasn’t, adding to Ronde’s immediate frustration.

It didn’t take long for UVA’s coaching staff to recognize that Ronde Barber was special and planned for him to start at cornerback as a redshirt freshman in 1994. He went on to win ACC Rookie of the Year and was All-ACC  for the next three years before turning pro after his junior season.

On Saturday (noon, NFL Network and ESPN), Barber, a record-setting defensive back for 15 seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will be one of nine new inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Not bad for a guy who wasn’t sure he could fit in as a freshman in college.

“After this class, there’s only 371 players in history that make it into Canton,” Barber said in a recent podcast with this website (you can listen to the entire 28-minute interview by clicking on this link and then pressing the arrow). “Think about all the thousands of guys that have played in the NFL and you’ll be joining people that you grew up admiring and some of the guys that you played against.

“I think it’s impossible to say exactly what it means. I’ll try in my speech, but it won’t really capture what it is. You don’t set out to be a Hall of Famer. Anybody who does that, it’s like a fool’s errand. You just don’t know how your career is going to turn out, so I didn’t plan to be this, but I do recognize the legends of the game that I’m joining.”

Barber knows a player has to be special to be selected, and his six-year wait was worth it. He would be the first to say that he’s no better or worse than those he went up against during his career, but he knows what he did, his value, his records and thusly knows he belongs in Canton.

If nothing else, his numbers bear that out.

He made an NFL record (for a defensive back) of 215 consecutive starts from 1997 to 2012, and that’s 224 including playoff games. He was a member of the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team, a five-time Pro Bowl player, first team All Pro in 2001, 2004, 2005, second team in 2002 and 2006. He was NFL Defensive Player of the Week nine times, joining only four others to ever do that, including Ray Lewis, Lawrence Taylor and Bruce Smith. He was a Super Bowl champion (2002).

We could go on, but you get the picture.

Barber redefined how his position was played in the NFL (more on that momentarily). His 47 interceptions combined with 28 sacks made him the only player in NFL history to accomplish that feat.

“I think that’s what sets me apart,” Barber said during the podcast. “A lot of credit goes to our coaches, Monte Kiffin, who will get a big mention in my speech. I mean he let me own [my position] and let me do what I wanted to do. There was schematics to what we were doing on defense, but there was a large part of that that I kind of created on the run, week-to-week, season-to season, things that we adapted to better fit my playing style.

“It became a standard and an expectation of the position that really kind of dictated the way that position, that nickel position was played over the years.”

For most of his career, he started at outside corner, moving to nickel later — something he’s not sure he could do in today’s NFL because the league has gone to bigger corners. But in Kiffin’s Tampa Bay system, Barber was given a lot of leeway to make plays and put up the unique aforementioned numbers in a defense that featured four of its members going on to the Hall of Fame.

Barber enjoyed a great career for some of George Welsh’s greatest teams at UVA in ‘94, ‘95 and ‘96, including the first ACC team to beat powerhouse Florida State once the Seminoles joined the conference.

His first college interception  (and ironically his first NFL interception) both came courtesy of former FSU quarterback Danny Kannell, who must go the other way when he sees Barber coming these days.

Barber gives a lot of credit to Virginia’s secondary coach Art Markos for teaching him how to study film of opponents and to self-scout his own game (he will mention Markos in his Hall of Fame speech Saturday).

Ronde will be introduced into the Hall of Fame by identical twin Tiki Barber, the great New York Giants and UVA running back, who should also be in Canton in our humble opinion. 

For the complete Barber interview, click the podcast link above and listen to him cover these topics and more:

• What it was like receiving his Hall of Fame gold jacket and why he had to send it back.
• Posing for his Canton bust was an interesting experience that sent him on his first trip ever to Utah.
• Why he’s looked upon as the “Boogey Man” in Philadelphia and how he ruined the childhood of many Eagles fans.
• What Ronde is doing now and an update on his wife and two daughters.
• What it’s like to have more than 400 guests coming to Canton on Saturday for the induction.

2023 Hall of Fame inductee Ronde Barber is in the building!!

📺: NBC and @Peacock pic.twitter.com/X1cKTC9d6T

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) August 3, 2023