Eagles’ Saquon Barkley is an inspiration both on and off the field
Barkley, whose new documentary debuted on Prime Video on Oct. 9, has plenty going on these days, but if he wanted to take time to talk, I was willing to listen.
While visiting Morocco and attempting a self-imposed news fast, I got an unexpected text that jolted me all the way back to Philly: Would I be interested in interviewing Eagles running back Saquon Barkley and his parents about his new foundation?
I felt like responding, Is the Eagles’ team color green?
I got the message on the same day my husband and I arrived in the city of Marrakech after having been camel riding and glamping in the Sahara Desert. Even though a fellow traveler’s iPad had been tuned to the Eagles’ disappointing loss to the Denver Broncos, I had been trying to disconnect and immerse myself in everything I could about the North African country, which is experiencing youth-led, anti-government protests.
For me, it was a welcome distraction from everything going on at home — including disturbing reports about the government shutdown and federal agents running amok in Chicago.
But the offer to interview the 2024 offensive player of the year managed to briefly snap me out of vacation mode.
Barkley, whose new documentary — Saquon — debuted on Prime Video on Oct. 9, has plenty going on these days besides being in the middle of football season. If the engaged father of two wanted to take time to talk, I was willing to listen.
Back home, as I prepped for the interview, I was surprised to learn the football superstar and his family, who moved to Pennsylvania in 2001, had been homeless briefly while Barkley was still in elementary school.
“Stuff like that helps motivate you to one day buy your parents a house, to one day be able to start a foundation,” Barkley told me when we connected last week.
Despite his incredible successes in the NFL, Barkley has never completely moved on from the struggles his family experienced. His five-year-old foundation — the Michael Ann and Saquon Barkley Hope Foundation — is named after his paternal grandmother, who battled drug addiction, among other health challenges; she died in 1994.
The message Barkley took away from his relatives’ ability to overcome hardship is that even in struggle, there’s hope. That’s something that’s too often in short supply, and something the star running back hopes to inspire in not only football fans, but also those he reaches with his charity work.
“When you have people around you who love you and a family, all things are possible,” Barkley said.
His foundation is scheduled to hold its inaugural gala on Nov. 1 at the Philadelphia Art Museum. “Hurdles For Hope: A Night Going Over the Top for the Next Generation” will be a black-tie affair hosted by Fox 29 coanchor Alex Holley and Charles “Charlie Mack” Alston, who was Will Smith’s longtime bodyguard and personal assistant before becoming a Hollywood powerbroker.
The goal is to raise at least $250,000, according to the foundation’s website. Organizers have big projects they would like to fund — scholarships, a community center for youngsters, and a shelter where entire families can stay.
Barkley’s mother, Tonya Johnson, told me she wished something like that had existed back when she and her husband, Alibay Barkley, needed a place for their five children and themselves.
“One family kept two of my children, which was Saquon and my other daughter,” recalled Johnson, the foundation’s vice president. “They didn’t even really know us like that. They extended their hands to try and make life a little easier for us while we were going through that situation.”
Barkley’s family members never forgot the kindness that was extended to them during a time when they really needed it. Now they want to continue to pay it forward, which I can’t help but admire.