A Humble Saquon Barkley eloquently explains to the Pivot Podcast why he passed up setting his career-high for Kenneth Gainwell and Will Shipley to eat
Saquon Barkley sent his former team a loud, resounding message last Sunday.
During his first return to MetLife Stadium as an Eagles player, Barkley logged 17 carries for 176 yards (10.4 avg) and one touchdown on the afternoon.
Philadelphia dominated the New York Giants, ending with a 28-3 win.
Early in the fourth quarter, a mic-up Barkley can be seen conversing with Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni. Rather than return to the game, an unselfish Barkley told Sirianni to let the young guys eat.
This week, Barkley sat down with Ryan Clark and the Pivot Podcast, where he eloquently broke down why he decided to let his Eagles teammates “eat.”
Barkley finished 14 yards shy of his career-high rushing yards in a game and placed himself firmly back into the race for the NFL rushing title and the league’s Offensive Player of the Year award.
The Bears trading Justin Fields signified that Caleb Williams was likely coming to Chicago. Here’s how he reacted when the trade went down.
It’s been over a month since the Chicago Bears moved on from quarterback Justin Fields and sent him to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional 2025 sixth-round draft pick. The trade cleared a major hurdle in the team’s pursuit of a quarterback at No. 1 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, which is widely expected to be USC’s Caleb Williams.
The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner has been projected to be the top overall pick for quite some time, and it felt inevitable that he would wind up with the Bears once they secured the No. 1 pick by way of the Carolina Panthers. But there was still conversation and debate that took place regarding Fields and whether or not Chicago would benefit from sticking with him instead and moving down the draft to accumulate picks. Once Fields was dealt, it made the Bears’ intentions that much clearer to everyone—including Williams.
Speaking with the Pivot Podcast, Williams was asked what his first thought was when he learned Fields had been traded. “My phone explodes,” Williams said. “I ended up calling a couple people and was just like, ‘well, we know where their mind and heart is at this instance.’ Let’s prepare and get ready and handle things accordingly and still do our due diligence on the situation.”
Williams immediately realized what that move meant, though. “In that moment, it was kind of like ‘wow’ because I didn’t do my top-30 visit yet; they didn’t have my medicals and things like that. They have it all now; it was nothing. And I had a good time on my top 30, but it was interesting right in that moment because it was so unexpected in that instance.”
Up to that point, Williams had only met formally with the Bears at the NFL Combine. His pro day had yet to happen, and his top-30 visit wasn’t scheduled until April. It sounds like Williams had a good idea he was the Bears’ target but didn’t expect them to make their intentions fully known without going through the other meetings yet.
Since then, there has been plenty of communication between Williams and the Bears, and reports indicate both sides are pleased with one another. It would be the upset of the century to not see him holding up a Bears jersey with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. After moving on from their old quarterback in March, the Bears are just days away from welcoming their new one in April.
Virginia’s Mike Hollins details the shooting that left him wounded and 3 Cavalier teammates dead
Virginia football player Mike Hollins related the events that led to him being shot and three Cavalier teammates being killed in an incident after a class trip in November.
Hollins, who underwent multiple surgeries and is on the road to recovery, told Ryan Clark of “The Pivot Podcast” what happened on that fateful day when a former Virginia walk-on senselessly started shooting. Hollins was wounded, another student was also wounded and Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler, and D’Sean Perry were killed.
Hollins had gotten off the bus after it returned from a class trip to a play in Washington D.C. but returned when he heard gunshots.
“We locked eyes and I just felt so hopeless in that moment,” said Hollins. “I can’t even explain it. It felt like he had all the power in that moment, even though I’ve never been a physically vulnerable person ever…I couldn’t do anything. I knew my boys were in there and I didn’t know if they were alive or breathing. Once we locked eyes, it felt like all of that immediately went through my mind before I could take off running.
“I could see him lift the gun when I turned while I was running. And all I could do was pray. I felt him hit me in my back, but he was going to have to hit me more than once for me to stop. I was still running and I ran through and into a parking garage and I didn’t see him chasing me no more. I was still feeling like I was in a movie or something, and I had a bullet hanging out of my stomach…All I could remember was being on the bus listening to gospel music 15 minutes ago.”
You can watch the entire podcast here:
Hollins was asked what he would say to the shooter.
“First, I would ask if It ever crossed his mind how many people this would affect?” said Hollins. “Also, I hate to say why, but what would provoke him and what was going on in his life that made him think that this was the only answer. Knowing those answers would help a lot of people in the future not make the same mistake. I can’t imagine someone knowing that hundreds of people would be affected, that they’d make that same decision.”
Sadly, Hollins’ detailing of his story to the “The Pivot Podcast” is not without some sort of controversy.
Thursday morning, Clark sent tweets accusing “Good Morning America” of breaking a deal they had to release their interviews on the same day. Later, he spoke to The New York Post.
“I thought a show like @GMA would operate with integrity since they have fooled us into thinking thy [sic] care about things like truth,” Clark tweeted Thursday morning. “After what GMA producer @JennLeongABC did this morning I now know that’s false. Schemed, stole, & lied all to be first. Long as you win right? It’s crazy that @JennLeongABC & @GMA manipulated a young man & mother that have been through so much. We are so grateful Mike Hollins & his mother Brenda trusted us to sit down with him first. Still, @thepivot can stand on delivering every promise we made to their family.”
“We had an understanding,” he said. “We both worked together on when we were going to release it, what we could do with the clips as far as promotions, so there could be some synergy between their show and our show as to how we released it. Also, a part of it was they didn’t want us to release anything before they could, with them being a big-time morning show, and wanting something of an exclusive — which, obviously it was not, because we were not only doing it as well, we did it first.
“They’d agreed to hold it till Friday because that’s when we were releasing our show. We agreed it couldn’t be called an exclusive, because obviously it’s not.”
Clark, who works for ESPN, which is owned by Disney as is ABC, said he had a phone call later in the day where GMA execs tried to clear the situation up.
Philadelphia Eagles’ star cornerback Darius Slay talked about Justin Jefferson, Matt Patricia, Dak Prescott’s thumb injury, the Cowboys, and more on The Pivot Podcast
One of the NFL’s more entertaining and insightful players, Slay opened up about his upbringing, outlook on life, and Philadelphia’s prospects for a postseason run in 2022.
The All-Pro talked about Justin Jefferson as well, calling him the second-best pass catcher in the NFL.
With the Monday night matchup now 72 hours away, here are five takeaways from Slay’s visit with The Pivot Podcast.
Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Darius Slay told The Pivot Podcast where he ranks Vikings star wide receiver Justin Jefferson in his tier of top pass catchers
The Eagles and Vikings are slated for a huge Monday night matchup, and it’ll see cornerbacks Darius Slay and James Bradberry matched up with Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen.
During his off time earlier in the week, Slay sat down with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor for The Pivot Podcast.
Philadelphia’s top cover guy was asked about Jefferson, and Slay called him the NFL’s second-best pass catcher behind Raiders star Davante Adams.
Jefferson, who the Vikings selected at No. 22 overall, has posted back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons, logging 196-catches for 3,016 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Over those past two seasons, Adams has posted 238 catches for 2,927 yards and 29 touchdowns.
