The 2020 season was the lowest of lows for Saquon Barkley.
The Giants running back missed almost the entirety of his third season in the NFL due to an ACL tear in his right knee that he sustained in a Week 2 game against the Chicago Bears – an injury he was not sure how to cope with initially.
“When I hurt my knee, I ain’t gonna lie, that was probably the weakest moment of my life,” Barkley said on the “Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson” podcast. “Especially the first three days — I couldn’t control myself. [I was] crying, ‘why me? Why me? Why me?’ That third day just hit and it’s like, ‘so what? Now what?’”
Barkley said Giants running backs coach Burton Burns would say those exact words to him and the 24-year-old knew he could not sit around feeling sorry for himself.
“Like [Tyson] said, adversity makes the weak weaker and the strong stronger,” Barkley said. “You gotta pick and choose what side you want to be on. …If I came back and things didn’t go the way I envision them going — I can’t see that, because that’s the way I envision it — but I know I’m [going] to do everything necessary to put myself in the right position the smart way and right way to come back better.
“If it’s not in the cards for me to do it, at least I know I can look myself in the mirror that I put the work ethic and did the little things to become one of the best to do it.”
Barkley entered that Week 2 game against Chicago after one of his worst performances since being drafted by Big Blue second overall in 2018. He had just rushed for six yards on 15 carries and struggled in the pass protection game as well.
It led to arguably the most criticism Barkley had received in his professional career – from media members and even former players — so he used that criticism for fuel that day, something the Giants star does not plan to do again in his career.
“I don’t need other people’s energy to feed me,” he said. “Going into the week I hurt my knee, there was a lot of talk about me, some legends that said some negative things about me, the media was saying negative things about me.
“In the game, it was a short game, but I was so pressed. I wanted to go out there and shut everyone up. I wasn’t doing it for the love of the game. … That was the first time I could look back on myself and say where I did that. I wasn’t playing as a little kid loving the game and trying to be great. I was going out there trying to make a statement and shut everyone up and I guess, uh, that happened.”
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