No, it wasn't a popstar at the Raising Cane's in Trevose just outside of Philadelphia on Thursday. It was Philadelphia Eagles running back and Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley that a crowd of more than 400 fans decked out in green cheered for and clamored to see.
The Penn State alum won his first NFL championship when the Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, which happened to be his 28th birthday. This season was his first in Philadelphia after spending the first six years of his career with NFC East rival the New York Giants, who only made the playoffs once in his tenure there.
"I was coming from being on the enemy’s side the year prior, so you kind of don’t know what to expect," Barkley told the media during his "shift" at the chicken restaurant. "But I’ve always had undercover fans I guess you could say from going to Penn State and playing high school ball here in Pennsylvania. So it kinda was full circle for me coming back home. ... It’s been a blast and then for the season to go the way it went and to finish it off the way we ended being Super Bowl champs, you kind of can’t make it up."
Despite a light snowfall, the Philly faithful gathered in the Raising Cane's parking lot — some lined up as early as 6 a.m. — to catch a glimpse of Barkley, who broke the record for most rushing yards in a season, including the playoffs, finishing with 2,504 rushing yards. One fan waved a Saquon Barkley blanket that her mother got her for her birthday. Another lifted up a cutout of the running back's backwards hurdle against the Jacksonville Jaguars that had the whole country astonished.
Barkley wore a green Raising Cane's T-shirt as he filmed promotional content for the restaurant with the company's CEO Todd Graves, served fans in the drive-thru and signed autographs for kids. One yelled at the top of his lungs, "Saquon, I skipped school for you!"
The location has been supporting the Eagles throughout the playoffs, including serving green lemonade, which was still available to order.
While soaking in all the excitement this week, including an appearance with Super Bowl MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon, Barkley said after the championship parade on Friday, he's back to business as usual. He raised some eyebrows after the big game when he offered that this was the start of a dynasty for the Eagles. At Raising Cane's he laughed that he "probably had a little bit of champagne and other stuff in my system at the time," but added that he couldn't sleep a few nights ago because his mind was running with offseason preparations to repeat.
"You kinda get greedy’s not the word, but addicted to it," he said. "You want to find a way how you can hold that Lombardi up again and do it all over again."
Barkley remains focused with values that he learned as a kid, including surrounding himself with positive and authentic people. He developed a friendship with Graves after meeting him at the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
"I wasn’t a Formula 1 fan, I’d never been there. One of my really good friends, he’s a big fan of it. I think it was cool to be there and see how fast it really is in person," Barkley said. "But just to be able to meet Todd and interact with everybody that was there was probably the coolest part for me. That’s like a big thing for me. I’m all about relationships and I’m all about aligning myself with great people and Todd’s a great guy. The event was beautiful, but it was just from you had all these celebrities and even the celebrities and people would bring their friends and family and how he would interact with all of us, whether it was myself or whether it was my friends, you can genuinely see he truly cares about people."
The other values that keep Barkley grounded are faith and hard work. He made sure to point out that they don't just apply to football, but to any aspect of life.
"Don’t let anyone kill your dreams," he said. "Me and my manager have a saying, 'Shoot for the stars, land on the moon' and I firmly believe in that."
*Travel expenses for this content were paid for by Raising Cane's.
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