Tiki Barber files paperwork to return to NFL

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Tiki Barber is currently No. 22 on the NFL’s all-time rushing-yards list. After four seasons away from the NFL, the former New York Giants running back could start moving up that list again.

Barber has filed paperwork to return to the league, FoxSports.com’s Jay Glazer first reported.

‘We filed papers for Tiki to come out of retirement,’ Barber’s agent, Mark Lepselter, told Glazer. ‘We filed papers with the commissioner’s office and the Giants. And there are interested parties.’

[Updated at 1:38 p.m.:The Giants will release Barber from the final two years of his contract once a collective bargaining agreement is reached with the players’ union, the team said in a statement. Such a move would make him a free agent.]

Barber will turn 37 next month and has not played since the 2006 season, but said he decided to give the NFL another shot after seeing how much fun his twin brother, Ronde, is having playing cornerback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

‘After seeing my brother still have fun at our age, it reignited the fire. I’m really looking forward to the challenge of seeing if I can get back to the level of where I was,’ Barber told Glazer. ‘I started working out again recently. I kind of shocked myself. I still had a lot of the strength I had before. I’m really looking forward to making a return.’

He spent 10 years in the league, all with the Giants, rushing for 10,449 yards and retiring after his two most productive seasons -- 1,860 yards in 2005 (second in the NFL to Shaun Alexander’s 1,880) and 1,662 in 2006 (fourth in the league).

On retirement, Barber served as a correspondent for the ‘Today’ show on NBC and was a studio analyst for ‘Sunday Night Football.’

-- Chuck Schilken

Reuters contributed to this report.