Saquon Barkley on Why He "Almost Didn't Play Football" in College

New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley almost didn’t choose a career path that included real football.

Such is the free-agent-to-be's admission to Jackson Thompson of The Messenger during a podcast interview in which Barkley said that following a somewhat successful high school showing at the JV level, playing college football wasn’t on his to-do list.

"At that time, I was at the point where I didn't think I wanted to play college football," Barkley said, adding that when his high school football coach Brian Gilbert encouraged him to attend football camps that summer, he told him, "Eh, I'm not excited. I don't really care for that. I'm not in the mood right now to try and make it for college football."

But Barkley, who finished his high school career having played at the varsity level, changed his mind when major college programs began offering him scholarships to come play for them, the first of which was Rutgers University, whose head coach at the time, Kyle Flood, extended the offer to Barkley base don his JV tape.

Barkley initially accepted the offer from Rutgers, but the more he played at the varsity level in high school, the more he put on tape, which then began to draw offers from schools like Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Syracuse.

Barkley de-committed from Rutgers and ultimately chose Penn State, playing for head coach James Franklin, but not so much because of football as there was another factor driving his decision.

"I personally felt that if football didn't work out, where would a degree be better from? The alumni at Penn State ... making that decision, obviously it worked out for me," Barkley said. "So I made the decision to flip from Rutgers to Penn State, which sucked because I feel like I was going against my word, especially off the team that offered me off of just pure potential."

While Rutgers would go on to struggle, Barkley and the Nittany Lions thrived. Penn State went 29-11 during Barkley’s time as a student-athlete and won the Big Ten championship in 2016.

Barkley also put together some impressive game tape that included shattering school records such as most all-purpose career yards (5,538), most career rushing touchdowns (43), most career receiving yards by a running back (1,157), and most rushing yards by a freshman and sophomore.

The rest, as they say, is history, as in 2018, the Giants made Barkley the second overall pick in that draft class. While he went on to have a strong rookie campaign, posting 2,028 all-purpose yards and the first of three 1,000-yard rushing campaigns, Barkley has since had to deal with injuries, including a torn ACL suffered in 2020, which have kept him from getting through full seasons.

After playing 2023 on a franchise tag, Barkley’s future in blue continues to be cloudy. While he has repeatedly expressed a desire to be a Giant for life, he also knows that it’s a business and that he may have played his last game for the only NFL team he’s ever played for thus far.

“Obviously, that's a possibility,” he told reporters earlier this month, days before the Giants played their 2023 regular-season finale at home against the Philadelphia Eagles. “A lot of that's out of my control. So, for me, I kind of just try to keep the main thing, the main thing. Like I said, the biggest thing is this locker room, and this team will be completely different next year. So, cherish the moments and go out there and try to go off on a high note.”

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