Darian Durrell Barnes (born February 28, 1980) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

fullback in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

and

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

Early years

Barnes attended

Toms River High School North Toms River High School North is a four-year comprehensive public high school, and was the second public high school established in Toms River, in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Toms River Regional Schools. ...

. As a senior, he only played in 8 games, registering 148 carries for 1,163 yards and 15

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s. He received second-team All-state by ''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to ''The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the '' Staten Island Advance'', all of wh ...

'' and first-team all-county honors at the end of the season.

College career

Barnes accepted a football scholarship from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. He did not play in any game as a freshman. He tallied 20 carries for 50 yards as a sophomore. He sat out his junior season until transferring to

. As a senior, he appeared in 10 games, posting 27 carries for 93 yards, one

and one reception for 7 yards.

Professional career

New York Giants

Barnes was signed as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

by the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

after the

2002 NFL Draft The 2002 NFL draft was the 67th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually sinc ...

on July 25. He was waived on September 1.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

On September 2,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, he was claimed off waivers by the

. He appeared in six games and was declared inactive in ten contests, playing mainly on

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

(three tackles) and being a part of the

Super Bowl XXXVII Super Bowl XXXVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to decide the National Football League (NFL) cham ...

winning team. In

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, he appeared in 14 games, before being placed on the

injured reserve list The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

on December 16, with a sprained left AC joint. He finished with 7

tackles. On April 25,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, he was traded along with a seventh round pick (#216- Patrick Crayton) to the

in exchange for a seventh round draft choice (#206- Mark Jones).

Dallas Cowboys

, he was acquired to complement Richie Anderson and be the team's blocking fullback for rookie running back Julius Jones. On August 24,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, he was waived injured (sprained ankle) and replaced with second-year player

Lousaka Polite Lousaka Romon Polite (born September 14, 1981) is a former American football fullback in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons. He played college football ...

Miami Dolphins

On October 24,

, he signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the

to be the team's blocking fullback for running backs

Ronnie Brown Ronnie G. Brown Jr. (born December 12, 1981) is a former American football running back. After graduating from Cartersville High School in Georgia, Brown attended Auburn University to play college football for the Auburn Tigers. He and Cadill ...

and

Ricky Williams Errick Miron (born Errick Lynne Williams Jr.; May 21, 1977) is an American former football running back who played 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) and one season in the Canadian Football League (CFL). After playing baseball an ...

. In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, he appeared in 16 games (6 starts), making 3 receptions for 22 yards.

New York Jets

On March 8,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, he was signed by the

to be the fullback for Thomas Jones, who was also his teammate with the

. He appeared in 5 games (3 starts) and was declared inactive in 4 contests. He was released on November 29.

Buffalo Bills

On January 17,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, the

signed him as the first move for both

Turk Schonert Turk Leroy Schonert (January 15, 1957 – January 17, 2019) was a quarterback, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in the National Football League (NFL). Schonert was the head coach of the United Football League's Sacramento Mountain Lio ...

as offensive coordinator and

Russ Brandon Russ Brandon (born June 1967) is an American sports executive, and current President of the XFL. Brandon is best known for his 21-year tenure in the front office of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. Career Early career Brando ...

as Vice President. This marked the return of the fullback to the Bills' offensive system. He was released four games into the season on September 30, after suffering a sprained right foot against the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

on September 21. The Bills signed fullback Corey McIntyre to take his place on the roster.

Detroit Lions

On October 28,

, Barnes was signed by the

to replace injured rookie fullback

Jerome Felton Jerome Jean-Marie Felton (born July 3, 1986) is a former American football fullback. He previously played for the Minnesota Vikings, where he had been a fundamental part of Adrian Peterson's success, including Peterson's 2,097 rushing yards sea ...

. On November 11, he was released after the team re-signed

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

Aveion Cason Aveion Marquel Cason (born July 12, 1979) is a former American football running back and kick returner in the National Football League for the St. Louis Rams, Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys. He also was a member of the Florida Tuskers in the ...

New Orleans Saints

On November 18,

, he was signed by the

to replace injured fullback

Mike Karney Michael John Mario Karney (born July 6, 1981) is a former American football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football for Arizona State University. He was drafted by the New O ...

, reuniting with

Sean Payton Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; anglici ...

who was his offensive coordinator with the Cowboys. He was waived on December 21. He was re-signed to a future contract following the end of the season. He was released on July 23,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Personal life

Barnes created a comic book called "National Triumph League" along with a partner, which sees professional athletes blessed with superhuman talent. Barnes and his wife, Rebecca, have four daughters, Damara, Darren, Daylin and Draya. In 2013, Barnes returned to his alma mater Toms River North as an assistant coach. In 2014, he was named the interim head coach at

Colts Neck High School Colts Neck High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Colts Neck Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades and operating as one of the six secondary s ...

. In January 2015, he was promoted to head coach permanently. He resigned after the 2017 season, finishing with an 8-22 record. In June 2020, he competed on the 20th season of the Food Network show

Worst Cooks in America ''Worst Cooks in America'' is an American reality television series that premiered on January3, 2010, on Food Network. The show takes 12 to 16 contestants (referred to as "recruits") with very poor cooking skills through a culinary boot camp, t ...

References

External links

Twitter Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Darian 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Toms River, New Jersey Toms River High School North alumni Players of American football from New Jersey American football fullbacks Rutgers Scarlet Knights football players Hampton Pirates football players New York Giants players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Dallas Cowboys players Miami Dolphins players New York Jets players Buffalo Bills players Detroit Lions players New Orleans Saints players Florida Tuskers players