Halfback news option

On the tail end of an up-all-nighter in honor of exams, I turned on Fox News a little after 5:00 AM central time this morning to grab the day's headlines before I caught some sleep. I can't say I ever really get to watch television at that hour, but it is the early commute on the east coast, so at least the programming is live.

To my astonishment, as “Fox and Friends First” came across my tube, the man sitting on the left of the screen appeared to be Tiki Barber. It seemed so awfully early for an interview with a football player.

Next thing I knew, he was discussing the NYC transit strike with the two hosts. And then he was commenting on President Bush. The show went to commercial and when it came back, he was still there. No questions about football – he was hardly being interviewed at all, in fact. I thought it incredibly rude of the channel to keep him there as a seat-warmer while the transit strike was discussed further, and then it slowly became apparent he was enjoying himself.

With good reason, it turns out. Mr. Barber, the New York Giants star apparently wasn't a guest on “Fox and Friends First” this morning – he was the co-host. As the New York Times notes in this piece I dug up while furiously searching the Internet for confirmation of Mr. Barber's anchor-status, the dominant running back has a weekly gig on the show, co-hosting every Tuesday morning.

Now, keep in mind, it was 5:00 AM and sleep was sounding really good to me. But I was engaged – partially stunned, to be honest – so I kept watching. And Mr. Barber was smooth, intelligent and warming. Not a great intellect by any stretch, but more comforting than the morning blab fest personalities of Regis and Kelly nature.

In fact, I could rather get used to having Mr. Barber deliver my news. He fits the morning show persona ideally and seems rather comfortable with the camera.

What is perhaps more refreshing, though, is to see a professional athlete working at something other than sports. Sure Jack Kemp made the transition, but he retired first. How many other NFL stars get up at the crack of dawn every Tuesday to discuss labor issues and international relations? MLB stand-outs? NBA? NHL? NCAA?

So yeah, it's sort of refreshing. Refreshing enough to prolong a hellish up-all-nighter, at least.