Ronde Barber reflects on journey to Pro Football Hall of Fame

Greg Auman

NFC South Reporter

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Ronde Barber has been to Canton, Ohio, many times before, but his trip in August to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame will mark the first time he’ll set foot in the building itself.

“I have never been in the Hall of Fame,” Barber said Tuesday, talking with reporters for the first time since his induction was announced two weeks ago. “We played there, I didn’t go in. I’ve been there five times, never gone through the Hall. I was purposefully waiting until I had my opportunity to go in. My next time will be my first time.”

Barber, 47, was announced as part of the 2023 class in his third year as a finalist, becoming the Buccaneers‘ fifth Hall of Fame player and the fourth from their vaunted defense that led to a Super Bowl championship in 2003, along with Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp and John Lynch.

Barber has already sat for his bust — he said he opted to keep his beard, to help distinguish him from his twin brother Tiki, still hopeful of joining him in Canton. As he prepares his induction speech, he said he’ll relish a chance to address when he was a different kind of bust, barely playing as a rookie in 1997 after being drafted in the third round out of Virginia.

“I do have a lot to say,” said Barber, speaking at Innisbrook Golf Resort, which in three weeks hosts the Valspar Championship golf tournament, for which he serves as general chairman as part of a charity effort that has raised $50 million for local charities since its start in 1977. “I don’t think I was expected to be a Hall of Famer, if you’d gone back to 1997 and I wasn’t playing. But 15 years on, it turned itself into a pretty good career. … Perseverance and hard work and really dedication to being uncommon.”

Barber correctly uses that word to describe his NFL career, unique in several aspects. He had a rare combination of two of the best things a defensive player can do, as the only player in NFL history with at least 40 interceptions and 25 sacks. He also has 14 non-offensive touchdowns, the fourth-most all time, and stood as a model for longevity with 215 straight starts, the most ever for an NFL defensive back.

He’s had a few weeks to get used to the sound of being introduced as a Hall of Famer, and while he’s always been a fan favorite in the Tampa area, he estimated the number of people stopping to say hello at the golf tournament will increase “a thousandfold.” The opening day of this year’s tournament on March 16 will be “Ronde Barber Appreciation Day.”

“This championship is everything to me, as you guys know by now, but being a Hall of Famer will only enhance that,” he said.

Barber said he hopes his brother Tiki — who rushed for 10,449 yards in 10 seasons with the Giants — can someday join him in Canton, and much of his career motivation was trying to keep up with the running back’s accomplishments after they played together at Virginia.

“We competed a lot growing up, and I spent a lot of my career trying to get out of his shadow, to be Ronde Barber and not Tiki’s twin,” he said. “When I got the call, one of the things I wanted was for him to be around, and obviously he was up in New York. Telling him was one of the highlights of my life, and he said ‘Now that you’re in, I’m in.’ This gives me an opportunity to talk about him and his career. He had a great career and in my mind, he doesn’t get credit for it.”

Barber said he’s glad the Bucs defense — under coordinator Monte Kiffin and head coach Tony Dungy before Jon Gruden took over in 2002 — is getting the respect it deserves with four Hall of Fame players, and its best legacy might be that teams still borrow from the “Tampa 2” defense that carries their name more than 20 years later.

He’ll be one of three defensive backs enshrined this year, along with Darrelle Revis and Ken Riley, and he’s said he’s even more appreciative of his honor realizing how long Riley went before getting his nod. The longtime Bengals corner, who totaled 65 interceptions from 1969-83, died in 2020 after waiting more than 30 years hoping to get in.

Barber said he was told that more than 30,000 players have played in the NFL, but only 371 are enshrined in Canton, so those who get there are close to the top 1.3 percent of those fortunate enough to play at the sport’s highest level.

“That speaks pretty loudly to what it takes to get there,” he said. “I’m happy to be a part of that.”

Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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