Pennsylvania Football Is Some of the Best of the Country. Saquon Barkley Is A Prime Example of That.
Pennsylvania is one of the places to be for football. It’s not only because of the utterly dominant Eagles on Sunday’s. It’s not just because of a revitalized Nittany Lion Football Team that has positioned itself for the National Championship with one of the best coach/quarterback combinations in the nation and a win on Saturday against SMU of 38–10 in the college football playoff. It’s not even because we have the oldest, continuous (I wasn’t going to say Phillies) stadium in all of college football. Or that we have one of the oldest college football teams in the country in the Penn Quakers with more victories historically than any other program.
Pennsylvania is one of the top states for high school football, it’s centrifuge of Philadelphia with elite programs like St. Joe’s Prep, Roman Catholic, LaSalle College High School, and Imhotep Charter High School. Each August, from games under the Friday Night Lights to the thrill of stunning Saturday matchups — our high school stadiums and fields are filled with some of the finest football in America.
Our poster-child for Pennsylvania perfection this year is Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. It seems that on the gridiron, there is nothing that he can’t do (we just aren’t going to ask him to play defense or special teams.) In just his first season with the Eagles, Barkley hasn’t just captured the record for team rushing, but he’s now also challenging for Erik Dickerson’s NFL record as well as a bid for the MVP.
Saquon Barkley wasn’t born in Philly or in the Delaware Valley. He began life in the Bronx, N.Y. but then moved to Bethlehem, PA. Brother to an MLB baseball player, nephew of a WBC Middleweight Champion — people came from miles around to see Barkley at Whitehall High School. To see a glimpse of the running back who lettered in football, basketball, and track and field. During his three high school years (Sophomore to Senior) he rushed for 3,646 yards and 63 touchdowns; including 1,856 and 31 scores during a senior campaign.
After changing his commitment from Rutgers and Penn State; he was dominant for the Nittany Lions. In the 2017 Rose Bowl, he rushed for 194 yards on 25 carries amid seven consecutive touchdowns for the Penn State Offense. Barkley would leave Penn State in 2017 finish 4th in Heisman voting and setting Penn State records for all-purpose yards with 5,538,) career touchdowns with 43, most yards in a single game, most rushing yards by a freshman and sophomore, and most receiving yards by a running back with 1,157.
For Pennsylvania — the second state in the colonies to ratify the Constitution, whose fields were run on for thousands of years by the native Lenni Lenape, and whose venues have seen thousands of players since its first high school football game in 1875, when it comes to Saquon Barkley being the best of Pennsylvania — he’s simply the best we’ve ever seen.
The post Saquon Isn’t Just the Best In the NFL. He’s the Best of Us. appeared first on Philadelphia Sports Nation.