Tiki Barber and Hall Of Fame-bound twin Ronde look out for each other on and off field
Identical twin brothers and future NFL stars Tiki and Ronde Barber were roommates at the University of Virginia — and when it came time to bring a girl to their room, they had their own bro code.
“Luckily we would flip like, ‘All right, I’m here. You got to go someplace else … go to her house or her dorm,’ whatever it was,” Tiki told The Post.
Whatever field they were playing, they looked out for each other — and they still do. Tiki, a retired Giants running back, will present Ronde — who spent 16 years as a cornerback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — at Ronde’s Aug. 5 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.
Tiki, now a star broadcaster on CBS and WFAN, pre-taped a message that will air before his brother receives his plaque in Canton, Ohio.
“So I just get to show up and hang out,” Tiki explained of the ceremony he will attend.
Tiki is not afraid of public speaking now, but as children growing up in Roanoke, VA, he and Ronde were so shy they created their own language.
“My mom used to say, ‘What the hell are you talking about to each other?’ And it was just really mumbling. But when you’re around someone for so long, like every moment, you can say things that make no sense to anybody else,” he said.
Mom Geraldine always made sure her sons played on the same teams growing up.
“She told the coaches, ‘You can’t separate them … because I can’t drive to two practices and go to two games,'” he said. “So we were always teammates. The only time we weren’t was when we got drafted to the NFL.”
Tiki still remembers the first time they played against each other professionally, in 1998 in Tampa.
“It was a big deal in New York. They were writing all these stories, ‘Twins playing each other,'” Tiki, who has six children and now lives in New Jersey, recalled.
“I’m running out of bounds and Ronde hits me after I’m already tackled. I’m like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ And he goes, ‘I’m just trying to make it look good.'”
The 48-year-old pair — who host the weekly podcast “Betting with the Barbers” during football season — text each other all the time.
“Almost every day because I’m sending him some funny video that I see on Instagram,” he said.
Ronde — a father of two who resides in Tampa, Fla. — is pushing for his brother to finally be voted into the Hall of Fame.
Tiki is not jealous of his twin getting to the Hall before him.
“Here’s the thing … I am the less accomplished, more famous twin, because he’s done it all, right? He’s played for 16 years. He won a Super Bowl, which I did not do.”
