Saquon Barkley was on a heater all last season. In his first year with the Philadelphia Eagles, he set the NFL record with 2,504 rushing yards (playoffs included) and won a Super Bowl.
He’s taken that hot streak into the offseason. First, figuratively, when he signed a record extension that made him the highest-paid running back in NFL history. And then literally, when he appeared on “Hot Ones.” Like every other guest on the popular internet series, Barkley ate 10 increasingly spicy chicken wings alongside host Sean Evans, who peppered him with questions throughout.
As unstoppable as Barkley was on the field this past season, “Hot Ones” revealed two forces that can slow him down.
The first? The wings of death. The “Da Bomb” wings, with a Scoville level of 136,000, had Barkley swearing and reaching for the milk. The final wings, “The Last Dab Xperience” that boast an impossible-sounding 2,693,000 Scoville units, had Barkley sweating profusely. But he still powered through to the finish line, kind of like in Super Bowl LIX.
The second force to impede Barkley? Appropriately enough, Julius Peppers. Barkley said that the recent Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee gave him his “welcome to the NFL” moment in 2018, when Barkley was in his first year with the New York Giants and Peppers was closing out his 17-year NFL career with the Carolina Panthers.
Barkley said Peppers had him by the shoulder pads after a play and the then-rookie tried to break free from the defensive end. Even for someone like Barkley — who was once given the nickname “SaQuads” for his ability to squat 650 pounds — his attempts at hitting the 295-pounder’s arms did absolutely nothing.
“That’s when I realized that there’s a difference between, like, grown men strength and, like, being strong in the weight room,” Barkley relayed.
“Yeah, that was probably, like, my most humbling moment of my life. Not just on the football field, but as a man too. Becuase in that moment, I definitely needed help.
“I’m strong, but he’s like, super strong.”
So there you go, NFL teams. Next season if you want to stop Barkley, all you need are the hottest peppers, or the biggest Peppers, you can find.
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