Saquon Barkley disappointed at being denied chance to break NFL rushing record

Eric Dickerson’s single-season NFL rushing record will stand for at least one more year. On Wednesday, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni announced that former Penn State football star running back Saquon Barkley will be among those starters held out for Sunday’s regular-season finale against the New York Giants.

Barkley will finish the regular season with 2,005 rushing yards, just 100 yards shy of Dickerson’s 2,105-yard milestone from 1984. Speaking to reporters later in the day, the ex-Nittany Lion expressed both understanding and disappointment in the decision.

“He asked me if I wanted to play, if I wanted to go for [it], Barkley said. “On Sunday, I probably didn’t care too much for it. When I slept on it, it was like – it’s an opportunity to implant my name in football history. I may never get another opportunity like that again.

“So I’m down, but at the end of the day, I don’t care if we’re putting the team at risk.”

© Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

However, the Eagles superstar noted his family was not as quick to move past the move.

“I told my family, obviously. My family probably wanted it a little bit more than me,” Barkley said. “At the end of the day, the most important thing is winning football games and winning in the playoffs, and I have a bigger goal in mind.”

At 13-3, the Eagles have locked up the second seed in the NFC for the postseason. However, the Penn State football letterman did become just the ninth running back in NFL history to run for 2,000 yards in a season with a 167-yard performance against the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday.

“I like him,” Dickerson said of Barkley last week. “But I tend to like big backs. He’s not a big back like I was. He’s elusive, he’s tough, he runs hard, he can catch the ball out of the backfield. I think he’s a great player.”

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