Eagles’ Saquon Barkley wishes his viral moment against the Giants was never caught on camera
Barkley was mic’d up against his former team and said he’d rather see his teammates get the ball than try to set a new career-high in rushing yards.
In the Eagles’ 28-3 win over the Giants last week, Saquon Barkley ran all over his former team for three quarters, before taking a seat in the fourth to preserve his legs. Barkley had run for 176 yards and was 13 yards away from his career-high. Coach Nick Sirianni asked if he wanted to go back in to try to surpass the 189 yards he had against Washington in 2019, but the running back declined.
“I’d rather see the young guys eat,” Barkley said.
The clip quickly went viral with fans praising Barkley’s selflessness. And while Barkley appreciates the Eagles’ social media team, he regrets that the clip got out. He worries some cynical fans believe he only made that decision because he had the camera and mic on.
“In that moment, which I kind of wish never went viral or kind of made it out there — obviously, shout-out to the Eagles PR team, I knew I was mic’d up. But I feel like it takes away from being authentic,” Barkley told Ryan Clark on The Pivot Podcast. “But for me, I see how hard Kenny [Gainwell] and Will Shipley work. … My motivation is to go out there and get the job done so I can see my guys shine. And the opportunity came where Coach came up to me, and I appreciate Coach, a lot of coaches don’t do that, being so locked into the game and understanding his players. To some people, they want that moment, and rightfully so. But for me, it was all about, like, we work just as hard together. The reason I was able to get this amount of yards and to feel fresh is because Kenny was out there balling with me, Will comes in practice, takes reps for me.”
» READ MORE: Saquon Barkley’s selflessness in the Giants game was especially meaningful to Eagles rookie Will Shipley
“I think that was you in your more authentic self,” former running back and podcast cohost Fred Taylor replied. “You know, you said you don’t believe it’s as authentic. I think it’s the opposite, the total opposite.”
“But it’s when it comes out though,” Barkley said. “Because everything I just feel is like different when you’re on a show like this, like how we’re talking, how we’re chopping it up. But like, everything is clickbait, and it’s like, ‘Oh, we have this moment.’ It’s like, all right, the Eagles posted it — and like I said, shout-out to them — but it’s like, all right, SportsCenter, and then this, and then that, and that. And then when you look at it, it’s weird looking at yourself saying it, and you’re thinking people that don’t know me are probably like, ‘Oh, is he doing this just because the camera is on him?’ In reality, I just wish that moment never got out there.”
Shipley saw his first NFL action against the Giants, with eight carries for 15 yards in the fourth quarter, and he nearly scored his first regular-season touchdown against the Bengals, before it was called back for a holding penalty. Gainwell rushed for 115 yards on 26 attempts so far this season, appearing in all seven games.
Barkley, in his seventh NFL season, is having a career year, averaging 109.4 yards on 5.9 yards per carry, both career-highs, and has six touchdowns in his first seven games with the Eagles.