Saquon Barkley takes on Tiger Woods’ mindset for encore Eagles season: ‘I want that to be similar for me’
Barkley said of his 2025 season that he'd like it to be like Woods in 2000 when the golfer one-upped his standout performance the previous year with something unforgettable.
From the Met in Manhattan on Monday to the Lancaster County Convention Center on Thursday, Saquon Barkley had a gala-filled week.
The Eagles running back spoke at the United Disability Services Foundation’s 60th anniversary gala in Lancaster on Thursday evening. Barkley, dressed in dark slacks and a gray polo shirt, answered questions asked by the Eagles’ Dave Spadaro for half an hour.
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Back-to-back
After becoming the ninth running back in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards last season, Barkley has been searching for ways to improve.
Barkley told the audience he wanted his 2024 season to be remembered in the same way that golf fans remember the year Tiger Woods had in 1999. The golfing great finished that year with eight wins, including the PGA Championship. But Woods’ excellent 1999 was eclipsed by his 2000 season, in which he won three majors and became, at 24, the youngest player ever to complete a career Grand Slam.
“It’s probably the most impressive season of all time as an athlete,” Barkley said. “But, in 1999, he has an amazing season too, but no one really talks about that. They talk about 2000. So it was like, going on YouTube, or being able to have a conversation with Tiger and seeing where he and his mind, how he shifted to be able to have that great year in 1999, and get to the point where we don’t talk about it anymore. And I want that to be similar for me.”
For Barkley, it starts with his competitive nature. While he admits he is unlikely to lose his starting job to Will Shipley or AJ Dillon, Barkley has identified the other Eagles running backs as the players he needs to compete with through the offseason.
“They’re my competition,” Barkley said. “Those are the guys I’ve got to beat. ... I’m looking if we’re going to draft a running back, what running backs did we sign. It’s kind of crazy saying it out loud, but it’s real.”
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Spin cycle
The lasting image of Barkley’s 2,000-yard season is the improbable reverse hurdle he deployed after making a catch in the open field in the Eagles’ Week 9 victory over Jacksonville.
Asked if he realized how impressive the maneuver was as he was doing it, Barkley replied, “No. I was hurting. When I landed, one of the big defensive tackles took a good shot at me, and my back kind of locked up.”
Barkley took the hit early in the second quarter, but he stayed in the game. He finished with 199 scrimmage yards in the Eagles’ 28-23 win.
“In the moment, I didn’t get to realize what happened,” Barkley said. “It wasn’t until after the game, I did media, and I was like, ‘Let me see.’”
Asked about the hardest hit he’s taken as an NFL running back, Barkley referred again to the hit Jaguars defensive tackle Tyler Lacy delivered after he came down from his spinning leap.
“It honestly might be the one where I jumped backwards,” Barkley said. “My back locked up.”
Signature Saquon
The gala served as a fundraiser for the nonprofit that provides support for adults with disabilities across Pennsylvania.
Barkley helped out with the event’s silent auction, too. At the end of his sitdown, Barkley signed three items onstage that became the first auction items of the evening.
The first, a football, sold for $6,000. A full-size midnight green helmet that Barkley signed sold for $25,000, while a signed midnight green Barkley jersey went for $14,000.
Seeing how much his memorabilia raised from bidders, Barkley quipped that he was looking for similarly generous spending if he were to ever hold a gala for his own Michael Ann and Saquon Barkley Hope Foundation.
“When I have a gala, some of y’all are going to get an invite,” Barkley said. “For sure.”
As Barkley was leaving the event, he made an impromptu stop. Barkley signed a painting done by local artist Loryn Spangler. This is the second year that Spangler has done a live painting to enter into the silent auction to benefit the UDS adult enrichment program.
Amber Remash spotted Barkley in the atrium of the convention center and asked him to sign this year’s artwork, which had an eagle motif. Remash said Barkley was easily convinced after he learned that the artwork was up for bidding in the silent auction.
After it was announced to the gala attendees that Barkley signed the painting on his way out, bids for it flooded in. The artwork, which Spangler created in an hour-and-a-half, sold for $1,850.