Saquon Barkley envisioned being in a position to win a Super Bowl long before wearing Eagles green
The 27-year-old running back — who will turn 28 on the day of the Super Bowl — is proud to be a key part of an Eagles team on a quest to win its second Lombardi Trophy in the last eight seasons

The last time the Eagles played in the Super Bowl, Saquon Barkley was rooting against them.
Barkley, a member of the New York Giants at the time, harbored a bit of resentment toward the team that knocked his squad out of the playoffs in the divisional round. The star running back watched only part of the Super Bowl that year, as he was on a flight back from Phoenix after participating in the media frenzy that is radio row.
“That stuff is fun,” Barkley said on Thursday. “Radio row and all of that. But I like this a little bit better.”
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Next week, Barkley returns to the Super Bowl with a new allegiance and a different agenda. The 27-year-old running back — who will turn 28 on the day of the Super Bowl, Feb. 9 — will be a key part of an Eagles team on a quest to win its second Lombardi Trophy in the last eight seasons.
Even though Barkley wasn’t a member of the group that lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2023, he still feels the pain carried by some of his teammates who fell short of the ultimate goal at the time.
“I think even though I wasn’t part of that team ... when you’re able to develop a friendship and a relationship with these guys and be able to go to war with each other, it felt like I was,” Barkley said. “I know how, like I wasn’t there, but I can feel in my own body how it felt for them and see the confetti fall in the wrong color and having to walk out.
“Definitely don’t want to be part of that. That’s definitely something that drives us. For those guys that have been a part of it, but also just want to get the job done and knowing how it is for those guys, how it felt, and doing everything I can in my ... ability to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
After a historic regular season and a dominant postseason, Barkley enters the week of the Super Bowl in rare company. According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Barkley is one of three players all-time to have at least 400 rushing yards in the playoffs before playing in the Super Bowl, joining Hall of Fame running backs John Riggins and Terrell Davis. Both players went on to rush for more than 150 yards in the Super Bowl, and each won the game’s Most Valuable Player award.
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Davis set the single-season rushing record (including playoffs) in 1998 as a member of the Denver Broncos when he ran for a total of 2,476 yards. Barkley, sitting at 2,447, needs 30 rushing yards to break Davis’ record. Still, Barkley is more focused on the team’s bigger goal.
“The only thing that makes it special, whether we got the rushing record during the season or if we get the all-time rushing record, playoffs included, the only thing that makes it special is winning a Super Bowl,” Barkley said. “This profession that we’re in, this sport that we’re in, there’s a lot of great things that we’ve accomplished so far up to this, but if we don’t get the job done next Sunday, maybe when you’re in your 30s and 40s and you look back at it, you’re going to think about how special it was. But it’s kind of going to make it feel ... like you came up short.”
Barkley will make his first Super Bowl appearance in just his second postseason run of his seven-year NFL career. Upon signing his three-year, $37.75 million deal with the Eagles in March, Barkley had the mindset that his new team had the firepower to make it to the NFL’s biggest stage.
“I didn’t think that it was possible,” Barkley said. “I kind of knew. You’ve got to envision it. You’ve got to believe it.
“Every year, no matter what, you have to come in with that mindset. Because we all have a chance to go out there and accomplish what we want to accomplish. I believed in it. I envisioned it.”
Radio row has nothing on the opportunity ahead for Barkley at the Super Bowl this time around. After setting the franchise’s single-season rushing record in 2024, the running back is still hungry to accomplish more.
“It’s a cool feeling when everything that you worked for, it’s all right in front of you,” Barkley said. “The player that I knew I was and the player that I believed I was is finally getting to show.”
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