The father of Giants running back Saquon Barkley is an ardent Jets fan. He’s such an ardent Jets fan that he has a Jets tattoo. Alibay Barkley also may be wearing a Jets jersey when his son’s team plays the Jets for the first time in Saquon’s career.
But Saquon Barkley said Thursday that his dad won’t be rooting for the Jets to win the game.
“The win is for us,” Saquon said Thursday, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. “But he’s also, I think what he said is he’s probably going to wear a Jets jersey. That is going to be an interesting one. I give it to him, because it’s a Joe Namath jersey. I think I got him that jersey actually, the Joe Namath one.”
Other comments from Saquon Barkley make it sound like his father’s support won’t be as unconditional as Saquon would like.
“At the end of the day, I knew this situation was going to come up,” Saquon said. “But I’m happy for him. I was a Jets fan growing up, too, so it’s fun. It’s going to be a little fun competition in the Barkley house.”
If everyone is on the same page about rooting for the Giants, there’s no competition to be had. Everyone is, or should be, all in with the Giants.
“My dad, if you ever met my dad, know my dad, he’s been a Jets fan his whole life,” Saquon Barkley said. “So is he going to root for the Jets? Yes, but he’s going to root for the Giants and his son at the same time.”
It sounds a lot like the divided loyalties that the average fan routinely experiences when the fan’s favorite team is facing a team that has on the roster a key member of the fan’s fantasy team. And that seems to be the safest guess: Alibay Barkley wants his son to have a huge game, but Alibay Barkley also wants his Jets to win.
