NEW ORLEANS — Yes, Saquon Barkley admits he talked himself into this.
He shed his “Giant for life’’ wish when it became clear to him that he was not going to get the deal he wanted from the team that selected him with the No. 2 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
He was able to cast aside the burden he carried for an entire franchise after he realized he was not capable of turning the Giants into winners.
And so, as Barkley prepared for his seventh NFL season and his first wearing Eagles green, he dared to dream about massive team success and record-breaking personal achievement.
“You gotta envision it, you gotta believe it,’’ Barkley said last week. “And sometimes, it’s funny how things work. You work your butt off, your tail off all offseason, and that only gives you a chance.
“Every year, no matter what, you have to come up with that mindset because we all have a chance to go out there and accomplish what we want to accomplish. So I believed in it, I envisioned it, I had those conversations with myself.
“Some guys write it down on notes and put it on their mirrors and stuff like that. I’m more to myself, whether it’s, you know, I’m in a sauna or in that cold tub or on the drives in the morning. But it’s a cool feeling when everything that you work for, it’s all right in front of you and the player that I knew I was and the player that I believed I was is finally getting to show.’’
It is all right in front of Barkley, who is one victory away from fashioning a true tale of redemption. The closest he ever got to a Super Bowl in six years with the Giants was not very close at all — one playoff win following the 2022 season.
That was the only season he made it to the postseason with the Giants. Barkley has been a catalyst for his new team, with the Eagles entering Super Bowl 2025 as a live and modest underdog against a Chiefs dynasty looking to secure the first three-peat in NFL history.
There were so many moments with the Giants when Barkley could not envision this because the losing was overpowering. The Giants played 99 games in six years with Barkley as their top running back and face of the franchise and went 34-64-1.
In his first season with his new side, Barkley rushed for 2,005 yards and the Eagles went 14-3. He amassed 442 yards in three playoff victories and became the first player to ever have three touchdown runs in the postseason of 60 or more yards.
His impact was felt everywhere — on the field, in the locker room and in the hearts and minds of Philly fans who cannot believe they were fortunate enough to acquire a player with such star power.
This is new terrain for Barkley, but not so for many of his teammates, as the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl two years ago, falling to the Chiefs in an epic 38-35 loss in Glendale, Ariz. Barkley at that time had completed his fifth season with the Giants with a 38-7 loss in Philadelphia in an NFC divisional round rout. And so, he was happy to see the Eagles, a rival from the NFC East, get beat in a Super Bowl.
“Of course I was rooting against them,” Barkley said. “They knocked us out of the playoffs at that time. So yeah, there was no part of me that wanted the Eagles to win.”
It did not take Barkley long to figure out how badly that loss resonated with the Eagles franchise.
“I think even though I wasn’t part of that team, when you’re able to develop a friendship and relationship with these guys and be able to go to war with each other, it felt like I was,” Barkley said. “I wasn’t there but I can feel in my own body and myself how it felt for them to see the confetti fall in the wrong color.
“Definitely don’t want to be a part of that. That’s definitely something that drives us. For those guys that have been a part of it but also just wanting to get the job done. And knowing how it is for those guys, how it felt. Doing everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
