Penn State great Saquon Barkley drug tested after viral backward hurdle

Saquon Barkley is getting a little extra oversight from the NFL league office after going airborne and viral last weekend. The former Penn State football turned Philadelphia Eagles superstar running back was subject to the league’s random drug screening following his backward hurdle in Sunday’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“I got it right away. I got drug tested right after the game,” Barkley told AJ Greene and Justin Pugh of the Air it Out podcast when discussing the play earlier this week.

SAQUON BARKLEY IS NOT OF THIS WORLD.

📺: #JAXvsPHI on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/UtCENDw6no

— NFL (@NFL) November 3, 2024

“What really happened was I was going to hit a double spin, but I aborted it,” Barkley continued. “So, when I spun, I went to spin again – it’s probably going to take away from how cool the play was – I thought he was going low, so I was just like, ‘It would be cool if I just jump up.’ But you know, my body kind of took over.”

The hurdle, along with a 199 all-purpose yards and two-score performance, helped Saquon Barkley earn NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. His third of the season, the ex-Penn State football star has 925 yards and six touchdowns on the year.

While Barkley is off to a strong start in his first season back in the Keystone State, don’t expect backward hurdles to become commonplace from the ex-Nittany Lion.

“I have no intentions to ever do that again,” he said. “If it happens again, it happens, but I’m never going into a game [trying to do that].”

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