Nearly a year after one UVA alum said goodbye to the window at Rockefeller Center to take a more prestigious post in the news biz, another will come to begin his career anew. Yesterday, NBC announced that starting in April, Cavalier gridiron great Tiki Barber will become the latest member of the Today show’s on-air team. But don’t think he’ll just be the sports guy. The recently-retired New York Giant said in a press conference yesterday he will act as a “correspondent” reporting on everything from “technology to education to parenting.” “My dream has always been to be on the Today show,” he said, and called ten-year veteran of Today Matt Lauer his “idol.”

Barber’s move from the locker room to morning show desk is not an unprecedented one. As NBC CEO Jeff Zucker pointed out yesterday, former Major League catcher Joe Garagiola did work on Today in the ’60s, ’70s and ’90s and fellow Giants alum Frank Gifford has cultivated a long career in broadcasting events other than sports.

That’s not to say one of UVA’s all-time great athletes won’t talk a little ball, too. In addition to his morning duties, he’ll also be an analyst on NBC’s Football Night in America and will go to Beijing in 2008 to cover the Summer Olympics.
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