FASSEL CAN’T LET TIKI GET RUN DOWN

FIRST they decided he was too small to be an every-down back and take the pounding. Next they said he was more obsessed with being Mr. Cosmopolitan New York than New York football player.

Wrong and wrong on Tiki Barber.

“I think his value to our team,” Michael Strahan said, “could be as much as Priest Holmes’ value to Kansas City for all he does for us.”

And therein lies the dilemma for Jim Fassel and the Giants.

They can’t live with feeding Barber to the lions . . . or the Dolphins . . . down after down, carry after carry . . . and they can’t live without him.

They can’t have Barber hair today and gone tomorrow.

Barber has spent an athletic lifetime gleefully dodging naysayers who swore he could not take a licking and keeps on tiki-ing. He plays with a broken this or a cracked that, and does not come out of the game because he has a toughness that belies his million-dollar smile.

Barber’s ankle was screaming at him against the Redskins and he simply wouldn’t listen. “I’d get hit on my ankle and feel like it was broken,” Barber said, “and I’d stand there and tell myself, ‘Stop hurting, stop hurting, stop hurting . . .’ I can convince myself that I’m not hurt.”

Because it would hurt too much to leave. “Being a non-factor is my worst fear,” Barber said. “When I become a non-factor on this team, that’s when I need to retire.”

Barber (67 carries) has rushed for 313 yards over the first three games this season. He needs 133 more to leapfrog Alex Webster into third place on the all-time Giant list. He is second (9,426) in total yardage to Frank Gifford (9,862).

He is 28 years old and in his prime. But whether you are 5-10, 190, like he is, or bigger, the body can only take so many hits. Ask Curtis Martin about that.

“Coach [Eric] Studesville told me today on the football field, ‘Don’t get mad at me when I tell you to sit down and take a series off,’ ” Barber said Friday after practice. “I said, ‘I’ll get mad at you, but don’t take it personally.’ “

The bye week helped him. “I don’t necessarily feel like I’m getting overworked,” Barber said. “I’m only averaging about 22 carries a game. It’s not as if I’m averaging 30 or so.”

You will find him in the equipment room alone, a towel over his head, before every game. “I try to visualize how a specific play we have is gonna play out, or how to do something extraordinary,” Barber said. “I tell myself regularly when I’m on the sidelines, ‘Be extraordinary, be extraordinary, be extraordinary. Do something that’s not typical.”

He usually does. “He plays at a rate that’s faster than everybody else,” Ike Hilliard says, “and it seems as if he sees a move ahead or a guy ahead, or two, and you can’t teach that.”

During the game, Barber will try to lull defenders into a false sense of security. “I’m just nice to ’em,” Barber said. “Like, ‘Good job, nice hit, good tackle.’ ” In preseason, for instance, the Panthers’ Dan Morgan tackled Barber twice during a short period of time. “Damn, you’re everywhere; you’re gonna make every tackle on me today?” Barber said. Against the Redskins, he engaged Fred Smoot, who was iffy during the week with a concussion. “I went at him; I tried to hit him,” Barber said. “He was like, ‘You can’t go at me like that.” I’m like, ‘I’m just trying to make sure you’re all right to play; I didn’t think you were gonna play this week.’ Could something come up about the staph infection in Miami this week? You never know.”

He might finally make a Pro Bowl . . . once he quits fumbling. “He doesn’t look as elusive as he is,” Brian Mitchell said. “He gets behind people and he can get up to top speed real quick in a way of like a Marcus Allen.”

He plays for the respect of his peers. “But,” Barber says, “you’re not remembered unless you win a Super Bowl.” The Giants can’t win one without him.

The running men

Rickey Williams will be facing the Giants today for first time as a Dolphin. Here’s a look at how he did in his two Saints-Giants games:

Oct. 24, 1999 at Giants Stadium

Rushing: 24 for 111 yards

Receiving: 1 for -9 yards

Score: Giants 31, Saints 3

Sept. 30, 2001 at Giants Stadium

Rushing: 16 for 53 yards

Receiving: 4 for 49 yards

Score: Giants 21, Saints 13

Tiki Barber needs 133 yards to move past Alex Webster on the Giants’ all-time rushing list. Here are the top four: