John Lopez hasn’t had a good football season, it’s safe to say. The 31-year-old New Yorker has been a devoted Giants supporter since he can remember, and he watched every week as his team struggled to a 3-14 record with dysfunction on and off the field.
However, the person who was hurting him the most wasn’t even listed.
“It’s like a complete gut punch every time I see Saquon Barkley running for a touchdown,” he said this week on NBC News.
Naturally, he is referring to the outstanding running back for the Philadelphia Eagles who spent the last six seasons in New York. Barkley, who was selected by the Giants with the second overall pick in 2018, served as the team’s spokesperson. He was the team’s most well-liked player and their most potent offensive weapon.
The team was in transition in the last years under quarterback Eli Manning, who guided them to two Super Bowl victories, when Barkley moved to New York. Issues up and down the roster prevented Barkley from becoming the offensive weapon the Giants needed to return to being a title contender.
Blue and white jerseys with Barkley’s name on the back were formerly commonplace at MetLife Stadium. He will, however, exit the tunnel in midnight green at the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Sunday, as the Giants continue to appear to be mired in an endless rebuilding process.
He claimed that every Giants supporter kills on the inside when they imagine Saquon Barkley raising the Lombardi Trophy with confetti all over the place.
Barkley signed a three-year, $37.75 million contract with Philadelphia as a free agency last offseason. In the regular season, he ran for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns, earning all of that and more. He has five rushing touchdowns and 442 yards on 66 carries (a 6.7-yard average) in the postseason.
It didn’t have to be this way, as New York supporters are happy to point out. Barkley had the opportunity to sign a long-term contract with the Giants a few years ago, but they chose to franchise tag him, which meant he would play one more season on a fully guaranteed $10.1 million contract and then reevaluate contract negotiations. He became a free agent, though, when the parties were unable to reach an agreement on a new deal that would have kept him in the Big Apple.
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It’s unclear why exactly he was allowed to walk. Barkley’s age and injury concerns are cited by others. Others draw attention to the league’s devaluation of running backs.
In 2023, the team extended the contract of then-quarterback Daniel Jones for a another four years at a cost of $160 million. It didn’t make financial sense to bring back their running back on a big deal when their signal-caller was consuming so much cap space.
To exacerbate the situation, HBO’s “Hard Knocks” broadcast a documentary on the entire process.
In a now-famous video, Giants owner John Mara warned general manager Joe Schoen that if Saquon moves to Philadelphia, he will have a hard time sleeping.
That’s precisely what took place.
“It’s awful,” said Alex Day, a host and content producer for the local sports network YES Network. After serving as the franchise’s spokesperson, he not only does what you always knew he could do, but he’s doing it with the club you despise the most out of all of them—the Cowboys. You know that your ex-girlfriend’s new lover is much more attractive than you, and it’s like seeing her kiss him live every week.
The presenter of the Giants podcast “Big Blue Banter,” Dan Schneier, is quick to note that Barkley wouldn’t have achieved nearly as much success if he had remained in New York. Running behind what is arguably the NFL’s finest offensive line and having a top quarterback and other offensive talent relieve strain on him are two factors contributing to his outstanding season.
However, even he acknowledges that when Barkley breaks off another run or hurdles backward over a defensive player, even the most logical supporters are at a lost at the moment.
He remarked, “I’ve seen the Giants fan base since I started covering the team, and probably since I started becoming a fan, and it’s about as broken and fractured as I’ve seen it.” Although I don’t believe it is directly related to Saquon’s free agency and signing with the Eagles, I do believe it has made it worse. In the end, it boils down to the team’s prolonged losing streak and lack of optimism. The fan base has absolutely no faith in ownership. Thus, the Saquon addition is like the icing on the cake.
Even worse, Jones, the player the Giants decided to base their strategy on, was cut in the middle of the season following a 2–8 start. When he was spotted supporting his old friend in a different uniform in Barkley’s suite this postseason, it was like salt on the wound.
Mara decided to retain Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll for another season in spite of concerns over the team’s future. He asserted that continuity was crucial to making things better.
However, after a season in which the Giants set team records for consecutive losses, season-long defeats, and a division winless record, Mara acknowledged that she had nearly run out of patience.
With running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. and receiver Malik Nabers as two new stars, they will enter the offseason with plenty of holes to be filled on both sides of the ball, chief among them being at quarterback. In the forthcoming NFL draft, New York will have the third overall pick.
Supporters of the Giants are not hopeful.
According to Schneier, this is the lowest level of optimism that supporters have ever had regarding the organization’s future. The fans are refusing to give (Mara) the patience he requests. More times than I can remember, they have betrayed the owner.
Both the April draft and free agency will be targets for the Giants. However, they have to put up with Barkley in one more Super Bowl game before that can happen. He will face a Chiefs rush defense that is among the top 10 in terms of yards allowed per game (106.7) and yards allowed per carry (4.2).
According to Day, 80% of New York supporters will support Kansas City on Sunday. It’s much more fun to win a three-peat than to watch your former star win a league title with a division rival.
“I would have nightmares if I saw Saquon wearing an Eagles jersey and holding the Lombardi Trophy,” he stated. That was something I would never get over.