Saquon Barkley has this noble ambition of carrying the banner to change the narrative for the devalued running back, but not even Superman clips have run through the brick wall that the NFL has constructed.
“The only thing that is going to change that is by one of us going out there and making it change,” Barkley said.
And:
“When you talk about legacy, it’s on guys like myself, it’s on guys like Christian [McCaffrey], it’s on guys like J.T. [Jonathan Taylor] and Najee [Harris] for us to go out there and change the narrative.”
Good for Barkley if it helps motivate him and good for Barkley if it helps him move past a negotiating defeat so soul-crushing that he so much as entertained the cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face of the franchise thought of sitting out the season and leaving the game he has loved from childhood.
The reality is that no matter how many times he brings Giants fans out of their seats with explosive runs or runs after catches, NFL general managers won’t be lining up anytime soon to do an about-face on the perceived value of running backs in a quarterback-driven league.
Which means there is only one narrative Saquon Barkley will be able to change:
His New York Football Giants legacy.
His two seasons of greatness have been sandwiched around three predominantly kryptonite-marred seasons, and 2023 might prove to be his last chance to leave the forever legacy he was drafted second overall in 2018 to leave with the Giants.
It should be clear by now that GM Joe Schoen won’t hesitate slapping the franchise tag on Barkley next year if he is so inclined, or let him test free agency.
It would mean that in the absence of an extension next year at age 27, Barkley’s Giant For Life expectancy could very well be one year.
This year.
“I can’t see the future. I wish I could,” Barkley said.
The Future Is Now for him.
“I know the type of player I will show I am this year, God willing,” Barkley said.
By no means will it be easy for him to reach the face-saving $900,000 in incentives that are contingent upon the Giants making the playoffs, but if he is the player he knows he is and helps Daniel Jones ascend and be the face of a special season, he will leave a lasting footprint and be remembered fondly.
Giants fans should welcome Barkley as The Defiant Giant, driven to bury any lingering dark thoughts about how the business side of football can make you feel so disrespected it can make you forget how joyful the game has been.
“Don’t let this break your spirit,” veteran Giants implored him.
He vows that it won’t.
“I’m never, ever, ever gonna let anybody or anything break me down and tear me apart and change who I am,” Barkley said.
More than once, when explaining about why he decided to join his teammates for the start of training camp, he said: “I had an epiphany.”
He added: “I kinda just followed my heart.”
It wasn’t just his heart. It was his mind as well.
“If I sat out this year,” Barkley said, “say if the New York Football Giants didn’t have a good record, you think that’s gonna make another team in free agency or the Giants want to have me come back the next year after I sat out a whole year and be like, ‘Oh we want to give you 15 million dollars a year now’? I don’t think that’s how it’s gonna work.”
It didn’t work out better for him this time than the $10.1 million franchise tag plus incentives. After he had rejected better offers. With no regrets.
“I said I wanted something that is respectable,” Barkley said. “I don’t want to use the word ‘fair’ because I’m sitting here in New York with 20, 30 cameras on me, I’m also talking to fans and there’s a lot of people that are where I come from that don’t have a lot of money and we’re talking about $10-$11 million. That’s a lot of money. I don’t want to say something that’s fair. I want to say something that’s respectable. If I felt like it was something respectable I would have taken it.’’
Everyone knows that Barkley’s squeaky-clean image has always been important to him.
“I felt like this would be the best thing not only for me, for my teammates, for the fans in New York and for the running backs,” he said.
Man on a mission: Go out and give the Giants so much bang for their bucks with a Gold Jacket Guy season that they and Giants fans flooding the stadium in their 26 jerseys will wish you never had to leave.