Saquon Barkley changed teams for the first time in his NFL career this season, but the well-respected running back is still very much the same highly professional guy fans have known since his time in State College.
After a drop late in a Week 2 loss on Monday Night Football, the Philadelphia Eagles star chose to reschedule an interview with The Dan Patrick Show the following morning with little notice. It was inconvenient but understandable to Patrick, who made a point that Tuesday of explaining the situation and stating that he understood Barkley’s decision.
This week, Barkley made good on his promise to reschedule and appeared with Patrick while describing his mindset following that home loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
“I don’t think (of) it not being a good look for me,” Barkley said. “Because at the end of the day, I’m a big boy, I get paid a lot of money, and that happens. When you make mistakes or you let a team down, you’ve got to face those questions, and I did that.”
“I definitely felt like it would have took off a lot of the focus on the sponsor … I just felt like that was the right thing to do. And being a big fan of your show and obviously talking to you (Patrick), and you kind of being a mentor and giving me a lot of great advice, I felt like it was the right thing to do.”
After having to reschedule last week, @Saquon spent some time with us this morning discussing his decision to push the appearance and reason for reaching out to DP personally to excuse himself. pic.twitter.com/KQakdW9A5G
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) September 24, 2024
Barkley appeared on behalf of Applebee’s and believed his late drop in a narrow loss would distract from promoting the restaurant as well as be a distraction for the Eagles.
He’s probably not wrong. It’s all too easy in 2024 to have a soundbite received the wrong way or be taken out of context. Players and content creators are often waiting to pounce after bad moments, so Barkley read the room correctly.
Separately, it’s nice to hear that Patrick and Barkley have a real relationship. Those are rare between athletes and media.
That likely went a long way toward Patrick being so forgiving toward Barkley and making a point to put it all out publicly to make Barkley look good.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.