‘I was scared’: Former Cowboys CB Terence Newman recalls chance run-in with Marion Barber
Terence Newman was literally talking about the toll that football takes on the body when he saw the news of Marion Barber’s passing.
In a wide-ranging interview with Tyler Dunne of Go Long, the former Cowboys cornerback had been discussing the smart, quick-strike style of play that made him the fifth overall pick by Dallas in the 2003 draft. He recalled a Kansas State teammate who, conversely, served as the “kamikaze” on special teams. He remembered how his fellow Wildcat would “run down on the kickoff and lead with his head. Make big hits.”
He said his ex-teammate “had advance stages of CTE and was bedridden for half of a month.”
Newman compared him to Junior Seau and other past stars in the way he played, positing that “if they were alive right now, they would tell you to make it more of a finesse game.”
Indeed, just minutes after using the phrase “battle of attrition” when referring to the sport and sharing a story about Coach Bill Parcells expecting guys to play hurt during his time in Dallas, the 15-year veteran was suddenly flooded with notifications and text messages about the Cowboys running back being found in his apartment on June 1.
The two-time Pro Bowler’s immediate reaction indicated that, while saddened by the news of Barber’s passing, he wasn’t terribly surprised.
“I had seen Marion three years ago, just before I moved out here. It was raining, and I’m driving to the gas station- probably about a mile from my house- and Marion had lived in a high-rise not far from my house. So I see this guy walking down the street, in the rain. I get to the gas station, and it’s Marion. I hadn’t seen Marion in a while, but I heard he had fallen on hard times and wasn’t doing too well. So we talked and exchanged numbers, but I was scared when I saw him. He looked bad. He looked like he wasn’t there, like he was a different person, like he couldn’t function. And that’s probably why he was walking and not driving. When I tell you I was scared, I thought he might swing on me. I was actually scared.”
Newman was not the first ex-teammate to express concerns for the punishing runner’s health and well-being. Wideout Dez Bryant had described Barber as “down and out bad” in a tweet last July. Safety Keith Davis checked on Barber frequently and wondered, “Did I do enough? Could I have done something else?”
Newman continued with what he had seen personally back in 2019, shortly before leaving the Dallas area.
“His face was just droopy. It looked like he was homeless. Like he lived on the streets. I guess he had so many concussions that it really impacted him. I read in the paper he had gone to a church and got arrested — in a little town just outside of Dallas. He had taken a gun to church, and he had shown the people in the church the gun. So they called the cops and took him in for a mental evaluation.”
Nine days later, Barber’s official cause of death has yet to be revealed. But Newman believes concussions from playing football certainly contributed.
“I think that had to play some type of role in whatever happened to him,” he told Dunne.
Barber would have turned 39 on June 10.
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