Former Giants RB Tiki Barber engaged to Traci Lynn Johnson

Tiki Barber, the former New York Giants running back, proposed to his girlfriend, Traci Lynn Johnson, over the weekend.

"They got engaged," Mark Lepselter, Barber’s agent and close friend, of Tiki and Traci, told the New York Post. "[Tiki’s] very happy, and he’s moving forward with his life."

Barber, 36, is still in the middle of a bitter divorce battle with his wife Ginny, whom he left in 2009 while she was pregnant with their twin daughters.

While working for NBC as a football analyst, Barber met Johnson. And he reportedly left his wife for Johnson, a 24-year-old former NBC intern. In late 2010, NBC declined to renew his contract.

The story that hit the tabloids painted him as an adulterer, though Barber said he and his wife had separated before he accelerated his relationship with Tracy.

"I was in a bad marriage," Barber said in a June 2011 interview with HBO's Bryant Gumbel. "It was in trouble for a long time. And we decided to get separated. But Ginny got pregnant in the middle of it. And a lot of people think children save marriages; sometimes it makes it worse. And we split soon after she was pregnant.

"And I was on my own for a few days, and then I moved in with Tracy. And then, five months later, here comes the New York Post stalking me."

Barber announced his retirement from football in 2007, but decided in early 2011 that he’d return to the NFL. He has worked out for a few teams, including the Dolphins, but has yet to land with a franchise for the 2011 season.

Barber’s agent said that financial interests will not play a significant role in Barber’s destination. “We’re not looking to turn this into an auction,” Lepselter told USA Today. “There are only a handful of coaches he would want to play for.”

Appearing on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” Barber said football represents a necessary anchor in a life turned upside down by the depressive aftermath of scandalous divorce and disintegration of his television career.

"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."