Super Bowl LIX: Saquon Barkley One Game Away from 'Football Royalty'

NEW ORLEANS – Saquon Barkley has enjoyed a career resurgence this year after signing with the Philadelphia Eagles last offseason and is remarkably on the brink of making history.

The seventh year running back is just 30 yards shy of breaking Terrell Davis’ single-season rushing record – regular season and postseason included – of 2,476 yards that was set more than two decades ago.

But Barkley has his sights on something bigger.

“The only thing that makes it special is winning a Super Bowl,” Barkley explained during the media session at Super Bowl Opening Night on Monday at Caesars Superdome. “I think just winning the Super Bowl in general is such a cool moment and it puts you in football royalty. It's something that you want to accomplish since you're a little kid, so to be able to win it would mean everything.”

After enduring several years of turmoil with the rebuilding New York Giants, Barkley admitted that he was ‘pretty close’ to signing with the Chicago Bears before ultimately landing with the Eagles.

“You're going to have ups and downs, but it's who you are in those moments, and I never lost faith,” Barkley suggested. “I just kept my head down and kept working, and was able to get here and be able to surround myself with unbelievable individuals. When you're able to do that, you're able to have a lot of success."

This year’s success however did not come without a few hurdles. After starting the year with high hopes, the Eagles faltered out of the gate starting 2-2 with losses to the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Bucs before an early Week 5 bye week.

“I do think that the bye week helped us become a lot closer and realize what we want to accomplish,” said Barkley. “Just understanding the talent that we have on this team, we didn’t want to look back (after the season) at what we could have been.”

“Rather look at ourselves as a team that did some special stuff and accomplished a lot,” he added. “Now we’re one more win away.”

Barkley has had some of his best games this season in the postseason while logging 100-yard games in each of the team’s playoff matchups. In fact, he says that his favorite moment in his NFL career was his 78-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter of the NFC Divisional Round game against the Los Angeles Rams to seal the win.

“When you get to this stage in the playoffs you know it’s win or go home so that’s kind of the mindset right there and just try to stay locked in and get into your flow in the game,” Barkley said. “That’s been the challenge for me in the playoffs and what I’m going to try to do continuing in my career

He acknowledged that the Kansas City Chiefs may prove to be the toughest challenge in a Super Bowl LVII rematch.

“There’s a lot that comes with our run game that makes us successful, and we know that every team is going to come up with a game plan to try and shut it down,” Barkley said. “We just have to stick to what we do best and adjust especially in big games like this.”

The source of inspiration for Barkley is his family and friends . And being able to share the experience of the Eagles advancing to the Super Bowl was incredible.

“To be able to win that game and have confetti fall down on you with your family,” Barkley explained while specifically mentioning his fiancé, parents, siblings and children. “Those are people that have been supporting me this whole time, so hopefully we could create another special moment here.”