Rondé Barber is a Super Bowl champion, and five-time Pro Bowl cornerback, who spent his entire 16-year NFL career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, setting multiple records along the way. Revered for his “ironman” status, Barber holds the league record for consecutive starts by a cornerback at 209, and by a defensive back at 224, starting every game from 1998 to 2012.
Following retirement from the NFL, at the conclusion of the 2012 season, Barber joined Fox Sports in 2013 as an NFL game analyst through the 2019 season, teaming with play-by-play announcers including Dick Stockton, Chris Myers and Kenny Albert, in addition to roles on the network’s studio shows.
Away from the gridiron, Barber and Tiki wrote three children’s picture books titled By My Brother’s Side, Game Day and Teammates, plus nine chapter books, while also filming a Lifetime network PSA for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Since 2017, Barber has served on the board of directors for the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship, played at the world-renowned Copperhead Golf Course at Innisbrook. He currently is the tournament’s vice chair and will assume the position of general chair in 2021.
1. College alma mater? University of Virginia at Commerce, 1997.
2. Last book you read? Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray. I got on a Star Wars kick when quarantine started.
3. Last place you vacationed? The Breakers in Palm Beach (with the family) and Frederica, St. Simons Island (with my buddies).
4. PC or Mac? Mac.
5. Guilty-pleasure food? Isn’t everyone’s pizza?!
6. We’ll find you on the weekend doing? Likely playing golf, if I’m not traveling to watch one of my daughters compete.
7. Biggest fear? Being unprepared. I’ve always been able to make things look easy by being diligent in my readiness.
8. Proudest moment? I’ve had a lot in my professional career, but No. 1 will always be winning the indoor national championship in the 55-meter hurdles my senior year of high school, in 1993.
9. Dream dinner companion? Well, other than the wife (that’s obligatory, right?), I am going to say Lin-Manuel Miranda. There was a time when I knew every single word to Hamilton.
10. Any pets? Three dogs—shiba-inu/chow (Kya), bassett-boxer (Buster), husky-American Eskimo (Jagger) … the last one is my daughter’s new puppy.
11. Who did you last text? My quasi-degenerate (but always fun) group of guy friends in our neverending chat stream. We’ve solved the world’s problems 1,000 times now.
12. What is your cellphone wallpaper image? A picture of my two daughters at the Temple of Delphi from our trip to Greece.
13. What do you listen to in the car? Usually “Today’s Hits” on Apple Music so I know what my daughter is listening to; Otherwise, I’m very diverse here – I’m mostly a classic rock, or 90’s hip-hop, kind of guy.
14. What is your go-to drink order? Hendricks and soda with sliced cucumber. I know, so very sophisticated of me.
15. Favorite candy? Skittles are addicting. But thankfully there is too much sugar for me to eat more than one handful. Hahaha.
16. Do you suffer from Primenesia (the act of ordering from Amazon and forgetting about it)? I definitely do not … but someone in my household does!
17. Pool or beach? Pool to swim; beach to hang out. Given an either/or, the beach.
18. Charity you support? Copperhead Charities. Presently serving as vice-chair, under general chair Jim Eisch. I’ve been on the board, which hosts the Valspar Championship, for the past five years. We have a great group of members and a fantastic tournament director.
19. Favorite childhood memory? Visiting my grandma, Mary, on the eastern shore of Virginia and play driving with my brother in the old broken down pickup she had in the backyard.
20. Words of advice? These are not my words. Much smarter men uttered them first, but I live by them: Push through failure without losing your enthusiasm for the task at hand; nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
