SI:AM | No Payday for NFL Running Backs

Plus, the two veterans powering the USWNT at the World Cup.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. It’s heartening to see NFL running backs be supportive of one another’s contract fights.

In today’s SI:AM:

💸 Barkley and Jacobs left hanging

⚽ Alex Morgan’s newfound purity of purpose

👵 The USWNT’s “grandma”

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Will they hold out? For how long?

A rising tide lifts all boats, but NFL running backs remain tethered to the dock.

Even as the league’s salary cap continues to rise and quarterbacks sign record-breaking contracts, running backs appear to be taking a step backward. The deadline for players to sign long-term contract extensions was yesterday, and all three running backs who had been franchise-tagged by their teams earlier in the offseason failed to strike agreements on multiyear deals.

Enter the Giants’ Saquon Barkley, Raiders’ Josh Jacobs and Cowboys’ Tony Pollard. Only Pollard has signed his franchise tender (one year, $10.1 million). Signing the tender means that Pollard must report to training camp or else be fined $50,000 per day for holding out. But because Barkley and Jacobs are unsigned, they don’t have to show up to camp. They won’t lose any money unless they remain away from the team into the regular season and miss games. But Barkley and Jacobs now have no choice but to play this season under the $10.1 million tag. They can’t negotiate a new contract until next offseason.

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If running backs as good as Barkley (a two-time Pro Bowler and the leading rusher for one of the league’s best ground attacks) and Jacobs (a first-team All-Pro selection last season as the NFL’s leading rusher) can’t get paid, who can? Conor Orr says that Monday’s development is a turning point for running backs:

On this Monday in particular, it feels a little like there is no coming back for the position, which is odd given that two running backs were taken in the top 12 of the 2023 draft. It’s also odd because, as we’ve written before, a receiving back with enough ability to contribute to pass protection and checkdown-pass receptions is more valuable in the NFL than ever before. If a little bit of appreciation was to be shown, if a little nod to an increase in value was on its way, now would have been the time.

Barkley’s situation appears to be the most contentious. As the deadline to franchise-tag players approached, he appeared set to hit the open market as the Giants struggled to get a deal done with quarterback Daniel Jones. But when New York struck a last-minute agreement with Jones (a literal pinkie swear four minutes before the deadline, as Albert Breer reported), it allowed the team to tag Barkley instead. Once Barkley was tagged, he and the Giants failed to get on the same page in contract negotiations. Barkley said last month that he felt he was being portrayed as greedy by leaks to the media. He reportedly wanted at least $22 million in guaranteed money (the combined value of this year’s franchise tag and potential tag in 2024) as part of his new contract. With the Giants having declined to meet his demands, Barkley is not expected to report to training camp next week.

It’s hard to blame running backs for getting tired of being chewed up and spit out by the NFL. Teams are increasingly hesitant to draft them in the first round, thereby limiting their early-career earnings, and now they’re also refusing to award them with the larger second contracts that players at other positions earn.

Veteran Melvin Gordon said last month that running back is “literally the worst position to play in the NFL right now.” After Barkley, Jacobs and Pollard failed to strike deals Monday, several prominent running backs—including Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey and Jonathan Taylor—spoke out about the state of the position. McCaffrey called it “criminal” that “three of the best PLAYERS in the entire league, regardless of position” didn’t get paid. “At this point, just take the RB position out [of] the game then,” Henry tweeted.

Barkley’s reaction was more resigned, at least publicly. “It is what it is,” he tweeted just before the deadline passed.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated

• At 34, Alex Morgan is playing the best soccer of her life, not despite the challenge of motherhood, but because of it, Michael Rosenberg writes in today’s Daily Cover.
• The other star veteran on the USWNT’s World Cup squad is 38-year-old Megan Rapinoe. Stephanie Apstein profiled the team’s “grandma,” who’s back for one last tournament.
• Albert Breer argues that the problem for Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs is that running backs are too replaceable.
• The MMQB’s “Bad Takes Week” continues with Matt Verderame’s idea to tweak safeties.
• The Jets are reportedly planning to limit HBO’s access during the filming of Hard Knocks.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito and pitching coach Ethan Katz holding a bullpen session in Central Park during the team’s trip to New York.

4. Elly De La Cruz’s encore to his record-breaking throw from Sunday.

3. Aroldis Chapman’s perfect 103-mph fastball on the inside corner for strike three. It was the fastest pitch in Rangers history, breaking his own record that he set Saturday.

2. An utterly bizarre home run in a minor league game.

1. Shohei Ohtani’s bat flip after his game-tying homer against the Yankees.

SIQ

Former NBA player and current Memphis men’s basketball coach Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway turns 52 today. How did he get his nickname?

• From his childhood obsession with wishing wells
• From a photo where he looked like Abraham Lincoln
• From a misinterpretation of his grandmother’s Southern accent
• From a coach who said his passes weren’t good enough to be called dimes

Yesterday’s SIQ: Who holds the WNBA’s single-game scoring record (53 points)?

• Elena Delle Donne
• Breanna Stewart
• Maya Moore
• Liz Cambage

Answer: Liz Cambage. She went 17-of-22 from the field (including 4-of-5 from three) and 15-of-16 from the line in the Wings’ win over the Liberty on July 17, 2018. She surpassed the previous record of 51 points set by Riquna Williams (Cambage’s former teammate with the Shock) in 2013.

“I didn’t realize it was the record until after the game,” Cambage said after her record-setting game. “I don’t even think about that stuff while I’m playing. When I got subbed off at the end, Karima [Christmas-Kelly] told me I had just beaten Williams’s record, I was like, ‘O.K., that’s cool.’”

Cambage and Williams have the only two 50-point games in WNBA history and are two of only eight players to score at least 45, along with Maya Moore, Lauren Jackson, Diana Taurasi, Katie Smith, Elena Delle Donne and Breanna Stewart.