Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley walks with the Lombardi Trophy after the team won Super Bowl LIX. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
Saquon Barkley not only walked away with his first Super Bowl ring in his career on Sunday when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX, the running back also now holds the record for the most rushing yards in a single season (including regular and postseasons).
Barkley told Sports Illustrated's Greg Bishop that he told coach Nick Sirianni before the Eagles' Week 18 game that he wanted to break the NFL's single-season record, which he was 100 yards shy of entering the team's final game. Sirianni ultimately opted to hold Barkley out of the game -- a 20-13 win over the New York Giants -- keeping him from the record. He'd go on to break another mark, however. With 57 yards in the Super Bowl, he finished the 2024-25 regular season and postseason with 2,504 total rushing yards. He broke Terrell Davis's previous record of 2,476 yards established in 1998.
However, Barkley admitted after the game that he is more focused on celebrating the Super Bowl win over his personal accomplishment.
"It's cool," Barkley said. "To be honest, the most important thing was winning the Super Bowl, because if we didn't win the Super Bowl today, all those accolades and all those yards wouldn't mean anything. So, it's cool. I don't want to downplay it because I couldn't do it without the boys up front and I know how much that means to them. For me, I'm thankful. Couldn't do it without God. But I like that Lombardi Trophy a little bit more."
Barkley definitely made a fair point. Still, it's pretty awesome how historic Barkley's season was on its own.