Mads: Farvel, Tiki

From my hotel suite here in Rio, Abdul Karim and I watched the final act in the long, great career of a true Icon. After a pile of horrid Chevrolet, Diet Pepsi, and Coors Light commercials, Tiki Barber played his last game in the NFL. David Akers sent a kick off a Coy Detmer hold through the uprights as time expired; that was the punctuation mark.

For those of you who never got the opportunity to see Tiki play, I pity you. I thought I knew what living was, but I was dead wrong. I saw Tiki run for over 200 yards against an arm-tackling defensive effort by the Kansas City Chiefs. Now I understood what it meant to be alive.

I often tell people that Norway is so much greater than the US, and in many things (seal beatings for instance), I'm right. But the truth is that I envy the US more than many know, because Norway could never produce a mensch like a Tiki Barber.

Thank you Tiki Barber, wherever you are...