Eagles' Superstar On Motivation: 'Obsession Of Trying To Be Great, Not Flipping Bird To Giants'

Saquon Barkley was intent on showing the NFL what kind of player he really is during a historic season.

Feb 9, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (26) talks to the media with his daughter, Jada, after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Eagles superstar running back Saquon Barkley revisited his much-discussed exit from the New York Giants days after winning Super Bowl LIX while appearing on Sirius XM’s “The Howard Stern Show.”

While Barkley has been asked about his first six seasons with New York many times since signing with Philadelphia in March of last year, this was the first time since being validated as a Super Bowl champion and breaking Terrell Davis’ single-season record for most rushing yards (including the postseason) with 2,504.

“I think you always play with a chip on your shoulder, right? And I think you got to find different motivations and different things that push you, whether you're training or you're on that football field,” Barkley told Stern on Wednesday. “Has that moment crossed my mind? Uh, yes, I'm super competitive. Did I feel disrespected at the time? A hundred percent, but the bigger chip on my shoulder, the thing that drives me the most is being obsessed with wanting to be great.”

Barkley was certainly an excellent player with the Giants but the team success wasn’t there. The Giants made the playoffs in just one of Barkley’s six seasons after coming in as the No. 2 overall pick out of Penn State in 2018.

It took Barkley just one season with the Eagles to stamp his legacy as an individual player with a historic season and a team perspective with the Lombardi Trophy.

“I took [moving as] more of an opportunity, meaning going to Philly, as an opportunity that I can still, everything that I wanna accomplish in my career, whether it's, winning Super Bowls and MVPs or Hall of Fame jackets, all that I wanted to accomplish was still there,” said Barkley. 

Throughout the season Barkley has consistently noted he still has many friends in the Giants organization and that the adversity he went through turned him into the player unleashed in 2024-25.

“So the chip on my shoulder was that like, you know, I've been through a lot. I had a lot of ups and downs and injuries and adversity, but here I am and I never lost hope. I never lost faith,” he said. “So, this is my moment, so now I gotta capitalize on my moment. So that was my chip on my shoulder, just the obsession of trying to be great rather than a get back or flipping the bird to the Giants because it's a business.

"It's the NFL.”

While Barkley is not especially fond of Giants GM Joe Schoen, the star running back also understands things could have been far worse when it came to his exit plan from North Jersey.

“You know, I've seen worse, to be honest. I've seen worse and they could have done me wrong, again, they could have tagged me, could have forced me, they could have traded me,” Barkley said. “... What they did in our business, you know, was kind of the respectable thing to do and which there's no surprise because Mr. [John] Mara and [Steve] Tisch and that whole organization's first class. 

“So I took it more as a motivation of, you know, my story's not done, and I can continue to add more chapters to the story.”

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