Saquon Barkley Appears to Troll Giants, John Mara in Viral Ad for Sleeping Aids

Kristen Wong | Jan 2, 2025

Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants couldn’t be at more different places in the NFL right now. 

While Barkley is happily dreaming about 2,000-yard rushing records and winning the Super Bowl, the Giants might be having stressful nightmares about the future of their franchise with a 3–13 record and no clear quarterback solution in sight. 

One sleeping aids company saw the perfect opportunity for some saucy marketing from the Barkley-Giants saga and teamed up with the Philadelphia Eagles star to make a clever ad that seemed to poke fun at Giants owner John Mara. 

Before Barkley signed with the Eagles in free agency, Mara and the Giants were seen deliberating over Barkley’s future in HBO’s Hard Knocks series covering the Giants last offseason. In one episode, Mara told general manager Joe Schoen, “I’ll have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia, I’ll tell you that, as I’ve told you. Just being honest. He’s the most popular player we have by far.”

Enter: the Unisom ad.

“I heard some of you were having trouble sleeping, so I wrote you a lullaby,” Barkley said, with a smile. “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. Good night to you all.”

saquon really released an ad trolling the giants and john mara from the “im gonna have trouble sleeping” clip 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/dKrOVLn9nq

— 10-1 WITH BALD SIRIANNI (@sixersruinedme) January 2, 2025

Gotta hand it to the ad men, they sure know how to strike a nerve. 

Barkley and the Eagles will be playing meaningful football this January having topped their division and wrapped up the No. 2 seed in the NFC. Philly will host either the Green Bay Packers or Washington Commanders in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

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