Franchise Player: A Giants Fan Had A Sign That Said His Ex Would Take Him Back If Saquon Barkley Autographed It, Which Saquon Obviously Did

Save me all your stats and takes about how running backs don't matter. Videos like that are EXACTLY why Saquon Barkley matters to the New York Football Giants. Yes I included Football in the team name to make them sound extra fancy.

Do you have any idea how many autograph hunters are screaming like seagulls during training camp for any football player to scribble their name, let alone a star player? A bazillion. And you know how many players, let alone star players just jog past them on their way to or from working in the heat for hours? Again, a bazillion.

But not ol' number 26 in blue. Saquon has been everything off the field the Giants wanted when they drafted him over Future Hall of Famers Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen (on the field not so much, but I'll attribute a chunk of that due to injuries). The easy thing for Saquon to do here was ignore this kid and let him spend the rest of his life thinking about the one that got away. However that's not what generational talents (off the field and sometimes on the field mostly during his rookie season) with hearts as big as their comic book quads do. They take a minute of their time for the fans not because he has to but because he cares about them and wants to give love a chance. That's not the kind of stuff that shows up on the stat sheet, but it matters to the fans as well as the juju godsand probably should be brought to the negotiating table.

Now that I think about it, it's actually honestly kinda embarrassing that Saquon's agents didn't setup viral moments like this back when he was actually negotiating a longterm contract to get a little more public sentiment behind him in a time when spending more than tree fitty on a running back causes your fanbase to lose their minds. Saquon could've started small by autographing a sign to save a relationship, bumped it up to surprising people with some sort of free merch through a sponsorship, then dropped the hammer by rescuing an old lady from a burning building that was all recorded in 4K by a "passer-by". It's one thing to not pay a running back, it's quite another to lowball a hero. However not doing any of that stuff isn't even in the Top 100 ways Saquon's management mishandled everything for him with this big blue shark.

Also I'm completely aware that this kid having an ex, let alone an ex- that would give a flying fuck about a sign being autographed by Saquon Barkley, is almost definitely 0 and he likely did it as much for the clout as he did for the random stranger's poorly written name, which he begged for on his jersey before Saquon left.