Tiki Barber‘s post-playing days included a high-profile divorce and some low-return forays into television broadcasting, and both failings contributed to a depression that has prompted the former New York Giant to attempt to resurrect his four-year dormant playing career, the 36-year-old told HBO.

“The game never needs you because there’s always someone else to come and take your place,” he said. “But right now, I need the game.”

Barber has reportedly been working out in earnest in a bid to return to the NFL. But the future of him and all prospective players is on hold while the NFL works towards a resolution of the current lockout.

Barber, who left his pregnant wife and took up with a much younger women, took shelter in his agent’s attic during the immediate aftermath of that decision. Last month he made waves by comparing that situation to the situation Anne Frank faced during the Holocaust, when she and her family unsuccessfully hid in an attic in Amsterdam to avoid capture by the Nazis.

(H/T to GameOn)