John Mara was upset over Saquon Barkley’s sleep-aid ad — but not for the reason you think
“There is an acting gene in our family, it’s not just my nieces,” the Giants owner said on Monday.
John Mara was very upset about Saquon Barkley’s recent Unisom commercial poking fun at the Giants owner’s past comments about having a tough time sleeping if Barkley signed with the Eagles. But it isn’t for the reasons you’d think.
The Giants owner said Monday that he actually wanted to costar with Barkley in the ad and get into the (other) family business.
“I spoke with him about it before the game,” Mara told reporters a day after the season ended. “I told him I was very upset with him, based on our relationship of so many years. He said, ‘What do you mean?’ and I said, ‘The least you could have done was ask me to be in the commercial with you. I could’ve been tossing and turning and it would have been a great thing. There is an acting gene in our family, it’s not just my nieces.”
Mara’s nieces are two-time Oscar nominee Rooney Mara and House of Cards star Kate Mara.
In the ad, Barkley says, “I heard some of you were having trouble sleeping, so I wrote you a lullaby,” referencing Mara’s quote from Hard Knocks that he’d have trouble sleeping if Barkley left the Giants for the Eagles, before singing the song. Barkley also counts sheep, which hop backward over the fence, referencing Barkley’s famous backward hurdle.
Barkley told CBS ahead of Sunday’s game against his former team that he made the company rewrite the initial version of the commercial to make sure it was respectful to Mara and the Giants, because he valued the relationships he’d built during his time with the franchise so much.
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“I’ll have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia, I’ll tell you that,” Mara said in a clip from the HBO show that went viral over the summer. “I’ve been around enough players, he’s the most popular player we have by far.”
Barkley, of course, ultimately did leave for the Eagles, and put up just the ninth 2,000 rushing yard-season in NFL history — and had a chance to break the single-season NFL rushing record, but with the Eagles’ playoff fate secured, he got some rest Sunday.