Giants running back Saquon Barkley is dropping more hints about staying away from the team into the regular season.
Barkley said last month that would be on the table if he and the Giants failed to agree on a long-term contract before the July 17 deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign multi-year deals. No agreement came before the deadline and Barkley brought up the possibility again during an appearance on The Money Matters podcast that was taped shortly before the deadline passed.
Le’Veon Bell sat out the entire 2018 season after being tagged by the Steelers and Barkley said that he believes it would be an effective way of showing what he feels he is worth to the team.
“My leverage is I could say, ‘fuck you’ to the Giants, I could say, ‘fuck you to my teammates,’” Barkley said. “And be like, ‘You want me to show you my worth? You want me to show you how valuable I am to the team? I won’t show up. I won’t play a down.’ And that’s a play I could use.”
Barkley said he never thought he would do that, “but now I’m at a point where I’m like, ‘Jesus, I might have to take it to this level.’” He said that he doesn’t know if he will take things to that point right now, but it’s clearly going to be on his mind as the rest of the team is heading into training camp.
