Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley is opening up about how building a relationship with God changed the way he viewed his role in the NFL and as a father.
During a recent speaking gig, Barkley said his decision to follow Christ has changed the way he thinks about success, fatherhood and the example he wants to set beyond football.
“When I was a kid, you asked me what I want to be, I’d tell you I want to play in the NFL,” Barkley said. “You ask my daughter what she wanted to do. She wanted to preach the Gospel.”
Barkley said conversations with his daughter pushed him to take his own faith more seriously. As she started asking deeper questions about God, he realized he needed to grow, too.
“We pray at night. We talk about it. She asks me all these great questions,” Barkley said. “And then as a father, you try to answer to the best of your ability, but all the answers are right there. So it’s like I’ve got to try for myself to learn it better for her and better for myself.”
For Barkley, that shift came at the same time as a career-defining season. He said his decision to follow Christ coincided with the best year of his life.
“The second that I made my mind up that I want to follow Christ, there’s no coincidence I had the best year of my life,” Barkley said.
Still, Barkley didn’t present his faith as a finished product. He said he’s still growing and wants to become the kind of father who can guide his daughter spiritually with confidence.
“There’s so much that I gotta work on and there’s so much that I can continue to prove,” Barkley said. “I want to be that example, not just as a football player, but to my daughter. I want to be able to open up the Bible and tell her about this verse and that verse and break it down. And I’m not there yet, but it’s a challenge that I’m willing to accept.”
Barkley also pointed to grace as something he wants his daughter to understand early.
“Once she learns Christianity, and once she learns that we’re all sinners, we’re always gonna fall short of it,” Barkley said. “It helps you define grace in that.”
Barkley closed out the conversation by sharing perhaps the most surprising part of his faith journey thus far. Barkley signed a contract with the Eagles in 2025 that makes him the highest-paid running back of all time. So naturally, he celebrated by getting baptized.
“I signed the highest contract for running back in February,” Barkley said. “And that same day I got baptized.”
