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Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley had 17 carries for 176 yards and a touchdown against his former team, the New York Giants, over the weekend, which was just 13 yards shy of setting a new career high in rushing yards.
When Barkley was informed of this fact by embattled Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni during the late stages of Philly’s blowout win against the G-Men, Barkley spurned the opportunity to go back in the game to set a carer high, instead opting to let the “young boy eat.”
The Eagles’ backup running backs behind the Pro Bowl Barkley are Kenneth Gainwell and Will Shipley.
“You’re 13 yards away from you’re career high,” Sirianni can be heard telling Barkley. “I would love for you to get that, but that’s up to you. I’m gonna take out all the starters if they don’t score.”
“You good, let them eat,” Barkley responds. After some further prodding from Sirianni, who tells him that he’d “love for him to do it if he wants to do it,” Barkley again replies by saying: “It’s all good, I’d rather see the young boys eat.”
Saquon Barkley wanted the young guys to play instead of going for his record. What a teammate. @saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/tJi8waO7MY
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 21, 2024
“Class act,” said ESPN‘s Mike Greenberg.“Easy to root for,” added Greenberg’s ESPN colleague and former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky.
“Leadership. Selflessness. Being a great teammate. I love everything about this from Saquon,” tweeted ESPN Fantasy Football expert Field Yates.
“This is incredible selflessness. I think a lot of guys would want to get a record against their former team…especially in this case,” chimed in The Athletic‘s Diana Russini.
By all accounts, Barkley is every bit the stand-up guy and teammate that this video portrays him as being. That said, it’s always difficult to take what players say when they’d mic’d up at face value given that the very existence of the mic might alter the way they act.
Through his first seven games as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, the 27-year-old Barkley has 108 carries for 658 yards and five touchdowns, in addition to 16 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. The Eagles currently sit in second place in the NFC East with a record of 4-3.
Despite the tumultuous start to their season and the turbulence surrounding Sirianni, the Eagles remain in a solid position to win their division as they still have two games to play against both the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders, their two rivals for the division crown this season (sorry, Giants fans).