One of the great things about the NFL is that year in and year out we get to see things we never thought we would see an athlete do on a football field. These are the best athletes in the world. We have come to expect the unexpected.
Even in that world of the very best of the best, when someone does something like Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley did in Week 9 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, we all have to collectively look around and each other and ask … did he really just do that?
Barkley’s backwards hurdle against the Jaguars got minted in the history books once again at the 2025 ESPY Awards, where Barkley took home the Best Play Award given to “the single play or performance, irrespective of sport contested or gender of participating sportsperson, adjudged to be the most remarkable, significant, or impressive in a given year.”
Yes, Barkley’s leap was all of those things — a singular moment in a season in which he became just the ninth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season, won NFL Offensive Player of the Year and won a Super Bowl.
Even with all that, it’s the backwards hurdle that we’ll still be watching decades from now — a cover that was also memorialized on the cover of the EA Sports Madden 26 video game.
Social Media Reacts To Barkley’s ESPYs Win
Barkley wasn’t there to accept the award, although teammate and NFL All-Pro offensive tackle Jordan Mailata accepted on his behalf.
“If Saquon were here, he’d say this is a team award,” Mailata said. “No man is an island. Go Birds.”
The Malvern Preparatory School lacrosse team in Malvern, Pennsylvania, shared a photo to its Instagram account a few hours before the ESPYs took place in Los Angeles of Barkley posing after a workout on the football field.
“Saquon Barkley was working out at my Alma Mater today as he frequently does,” X user Jason Dumas wrote. “No ESPY appearance for him.”
“No surprise that Saquon Barkley got the ESPY for Best Play,” X user Eddie Resureccion wrote. “That backwards hurdle is never going away. Shoutout Jordan Mailata for accepting for him. Great teammate.”
Barkley played his first 7 seasons with the New York Giants, who selected him No. 2 overall out of Penn State in the 2018 NFL draft. The Eagles signed him to a 3-year, $37.75 million free agent contract in March 2024.
Following the 2024 season, the Eagles made the unprecedented move of giving Barkley a new, 2-year, $41.2 million extension. It’s the first time in NFL history a running back has made more than $20 million per year.
“Eagles are rewarding Saquon Barkley with a two-year, $41.2 million contract extension that makes him the highest-paid running back in NFL history, per sources,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on his official X account on March 4. “The deal makes Barkley the NFL’s first $20 million+ per-year running back. Barkley also has the ability to earn an additional $15 million in incentives and escalators. The deal includes $36 million fully guaranteed at signing. The Eagles are taking the rare step of extending Barkley one year into his three-year deal — and in the same league year in which they signed him to the initial contract.”
