Philadelphia Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley is on the cusp of breaking the NFL single-season rushing record in his first season away from the New York Giants. And on Thursday, Barkley fired a not-so-subtle jab at Giants owner John Mara and general manager Joe Schoen for letting him go.
Mara has been reminded constantly throughout Barkley’s historic season of his infamous moment on HBO’s Hard Knocks: Offseason where he publicly declared that he would “lose sleep” if Barkley ended up signing with the Eagles this offseason.
The rest is, of course, history. Barkley has been the driving force of the Eagles’ 13-3 season thus far and now has the opportunity to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record against his former team in Week 18.
Barkley hasn’t spoken all that much about his exit from New York aside from a public beef with former New York Giant turned WFAN host Tiki Barber. But on Thursday, Barkley took to Instagram to share a reel to roast Mara for his old Hard Knocks quote.
In a promotional video for the sleep aid company Unisom, Barkley trolled Mara by suggesting he should take the product to help him sleep despite having to watch Barkley star on a rival team week in and week out.
“I’m Saquon Barkley. I’ve heard you guys had trouble sleeping lately,” Barkley said in the video. “We got a big game coming up. You should rest up. Maybe try some Unisom. I don’t need it, but you might. I’m gonna sleep like a baby. I heard some of you had trouble sleeping. So I wrote you a lullaby.
“Rockabye baby, awake in your bed. As the thought of 2,000 swirls in your head. It sure is tough to lose sleep over football. Not for me though, goodnight to you all.”
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While Barkley didn’t mention Mara directly here, it’s quite obvious who he was referring to here.
Interestingly, the Giants did ultimately replace Barkley with a promising rookie running back, Tyrone Tracy, who has had a solid season. So perhaps things could be worse for the Giants at the running back position.
Still, Tracy has a long way to go to even sniff the kind of numbers that Barkley has put up this season with the Eagles. And the Giants have been miserable as a team this season, going into their Week 18 game with a 3-13 record on the year.
As for the Eagles, they will be preparing for a postseason run for the fourth straight season. So it’s safe to say that Barkley is sleeping well these days.
