Tiki Barber wants (needs?) to return

After four years in retirement, former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber is looking to get back into the NFL, according to Sports Illustrated.

It won't be with the Giants, though.

The Giants acknowledged Tuesday that the 35-year-old Barber has asked to be taken off the reserve-retirement list and that they will release him once the league allows it.

Barber's second career with NBC fizzled and he did not help himself with New York metropolitan area fans, criticizing coach Tom Coughlin and former teammate Eli Manning, saying the quarterback lacked some leadership skills.

In its report, SI.com said Barber reportedly left his wife of 11 years, Ginny, for 23-year-old Traci Johnson, a former NBC intern. Ginny was eight months pregnant at the time. Soon after, NBC cited its morals clause and terminated Barber's contract, which reportedly paid him more than $300,000 per year.

In June 2010, the New York Post reported Barber was broke and couldn't pay his divorce settlement with his ex-wife.

NFLPA gets help for financial details

Zeroing in on the crux of the labor dispute -- how to split $9 billion in revenues -- NFLPA executive committee member Scott Fujita said in a telephone interview Tuesday that what the NFL has turned over to the union so far "hasn't been sufficient."

Another executive committee member, Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday, said as he left Tuesday's mediation session that the bank would "judge how helpful the material" the NFL was offering would be.

In other NFL news: NFL Films President Steve Sabol is recovering from a seizure in Kansas City, Mo., where he was to accept an award on behalf of his company. The 68-year-old Sabol was stricken Saturday night and taken to a hospital. He underwent tests over the weekend and was alert Monday.

Notre Dame bans hydraulic lifts Notre Dame has banned the use of hydraulic lifts to film football practices as part of a safety initiative spurred by an October accident in which a student videographer was killed when his lift toppled.

In light of the ban, the football program will install remote-controlled cameras at its practice facility. Construction on the project began Tuesday morning and should be completed by the time spring practice begins on March 23.

"I said in the days after Declan's death that we would do everything in our power to make changes to ensure that such an accident does not happen again -- here or elsewhere," Jenkins said in a statement.

Mackey doesn't think he'll win Defending champion Lance Mackey says a fifth victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race does not look likely. Mackey pulled into the Nikolai checkpoint carrying two dogs in his sled, and had just put a third dog back in the team after carrying it for a ways. Mushers will carry dogs when they aren't pulling well.

Mackey says he's not going to count himself out yet but he says victory does not look likely at this point. Mushers begin the 1,150-mile race with 16-dog teams. Mackey left Nikolai, about 350 miles from Anchorage, with 12 dogs.

Golf: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will be in the same group at Doral for the first time this year. It will be the 27th time they have been in the same group. Woods has shot the lower score only once in the last eight times.