Saquon Barkley trying to fulfill Super Bowl 2025 destiny he envisioned with Eagles from start
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 whe...