Barry Sanders and Saquon Barkley talk football at Lions-Giants joint practice
Saquon Barkley talks with former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders after a joint practice on Tuesday in Allen Park, Mich. Credit: AP/Carlos Osorio
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — After the joint practice between the Giants and Lions on Tuesday, Saquon Barkley and Barry Sanders huddled for a few minutes.
“I just said I wish I still had that physique that he has,” Sanders told Newsday afterward.
Sanders laughed.
“We were just talking about training,” Sanders said. “He had a solid year last year, obviously, and he’s ready to come back and build on what he did.”
Barkley first met the Detroit great prior to a preseason game between the Giants and Lions in 2018, Barkley’s rookie season. There are elements in Sanders’ game — particularly the handing of the ball to an official after a touchdown, which Barkley has done since his Penn State days — that mirror Sanders in his playing days.
Now, Sanders and Barkley converse as peers.
“We were talking about how he didn’t grow up running track, and neither did I,” Sanders said. “But some of those [speed elements] you do want to include in your workouts because you’re playing against so many guys that had that track training. And you can look pretty slow at times if you’re not careful.”
Told that neither Sanders in his playing days nor Barkley ever “look slow,” Sanders smiled. “It depends,” he said. “It depends on which game and which situation. Stuff like that.”
Sanders said he and Barkley didn’t talk about Barkley’s recent contract situation with the Giants.
“It sounds like he’s got a long-term plan in place,” Sanders said. “He wants to keep putting a great product out on the field and he knows the best way to do that long-term is to take care of business on the field.”
Barkley grew up idolizing Sanders. When Barkley was just a kid, he was gifted a Barry Sanders action figure. Barkley confirmed that the figurine remains in its original packaging, unopened and pristine.
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
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