Saquon Barkley showed he remains as selfless as ever despite sitting on the verge of making NFL history.
In the Philadelphia Eagles’ 41-7 demolition of the Dallas Cowboys, the star running back rushed for 167 yards on 31 carries, pushing his tally to over 2,000 rushing yards on the year, becoming the ninth player in league history to do so. Sitting at 2,005 rushing yards with one game remaining, Barkley could surpass Eric Dickerson for most rushing yards in a single season, needing 101.
Despite being so close to making history, the 27-year-old is not putting pressure on himself to make history, especially if it doesn’t make sense for him to do so. In particular, Barkley says he is not going out of his way to attempt to get it and would rather focus on a win.
“I’m not overly trying to go get it, I’m not scared of it,” Barkley told reporters after the win. “Like I would love to, but at the end of the day, also, we got bigger things that we’re focusing on and we’re able to clinch the division right here.
“And whether we play next week or not and rest, I’m fine with that too because I didn’t just come here and sign here just to rush for 2,000 or break a record. I want to do something special, meaning special with the team.”
Barkley also said that eclipsing the 2,000 rushing yards mark “definitely means a lot” to the 27-year-old and praised his team’s effort. “Like I said, you can’t be great without the greatness of others and I’m just happy I was able to be a part of the team and be able to reach a milestone like that,” he said.
Saquon Barkley became the ninth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season (
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
And while Barkley might be hesitant to break the rushing record, his teammates are more than happy to do what they can to get the record for the star running back. Team captain Jordan Mailata made it clear to reporters that Philadelphia will do what it can to support Barkley.
“It’s an opportunity to make history,” Mailata said after the win. “We tried to do it today, just on the off chance of just knowing your coach. We never really spoke about the Giants next week. We just kind of had a feeling if we don’t go for it today, we might sit out. We don’t know. Our coach hasn’t really said anything yet.”
