When Terence Newman saw former Cowboys teammate Marion Barber three years ago, he almost did not recognize him.
However, Newman never thought his last interaction with his former teammate would be one in which he found himself “scared”.
On June 1, Barber was found dead in his apartment in Frisco, Texas, but his cause of death remains unknown. Newman, who played with Barber in Dallas, recalled the distressful moment he saw Barber walking down the street in the rain as he was headed to a nearby gas station.
When Newman arrived at the gas station, he described Barber as someone “who had fallen on hard times.”
“He wasn’t doing too well … he looked bad … like a different person, like he couldn’t function,” Newman said. “When I tell you I was scared, I thought he might swing on me.”
Newman also believed that Barber’s physical state at the time was connected to concussions and potential chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), saying his teammate’s face was “droppy” and that his surroundings and interactions appeared to be connected to the disease.
“It looked like he was homeless,” Newman said. “I guess he had so many concussions that it really impacted him. … I think that had to play some type of role in whatever happened to him.”
The Cowboys drafted Barber in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL draft after a productive college career at Minnesota. Barber became an instant impact player in the Cowboys’ offense, scoring a combined 33 touchdowns in his first three seasons.
After Barber retired in March 2012, Barber found himself in some trouble. In 2014, authorities detained him and took him to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. Then, in 2019, Barber was arrested on two misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief after allegedly damaging two cars while running in Frisco.
