Running back Saquon Barkley knew he'd be hurting New York Giants fans when he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in March.
No matter what he said after the news, Giants fans were still going to express their feelings—a lot of which were negative. This bad reaction rubbed Barkley the wrong way at the time, causing him to not give as full and heartwarming of a goodbye as he had planned to the franchise where he played for six years.
Barkley now regrets saying goodbye to the fans in the way that he did, he explained when speaking to The Athletic's Diana Russini on the Scoop City podcast.
“I had a goodbye video to Giants fans—I don’t think I handled that situation right at all,” Barkley said. “I said a quick thank you to the Giants fans, but I actually had a legit response like a goodbye, and I let the hate on Twitter take me away from that, and that was really immature of me, and that’s the one thing about that whole process that I kind of regret.
"Because Giants fans, still—I know a lot of them hate me or whatever—since the day I got drafted I got a lot of love, I’d see a lot of people in my jersey, I tried to spend as much time as I can with them, show respect because they showed me a lot of respect. So I think I could have definitely said goodbye in a better way. Just being naive and immature, not even thinking that it really mattered that much.”
This admission comes shortly after a clip from the Giants' season of HBO's Hard Knocks went viral showing owner John Mara and general manager Joe Schoen discussing Barkley's potential landing spots. It appeared difficult for Mara and Schoen to send their "most popular player we have by far" to a rival NFC East team.
Barkley ended up signing a three-year, $37.75 million deal with the Eagles.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Saquon Barkley Regrets ‘Immature’ Way He Handled Saying Goodbye to Giants Fans.
