It was the kind of play that compelled fans to stand up in shock, left head coach Nick Sirianni speechless, and the Jacksonville Jaguars lost for words. In a purely cinematic moment in Week 9 last season, Saquon Barkley took a pass from QB Jalen Hurts while his team was facing a third-and-6 early in the second quarter. So, what did the running back do? He avoided one tackle, put a spin move on Devin Lloyd, and immediately turned his back to an incoming Jarrian Jones, expertly pulling off a ridiculous backwards hurdle. “It was the best play I’ve ever seen. I’m speechless. It was unbelievable,” Sirianni had said after his team’s 28-23 win that day. But, looks like not everyone agrees…

When the latest Madden 26 cover announcement featuring Barkley and his hurdle dropped, the Eagles star described it as a “Dream come true!” moment on Instagram. His mother Tonya Johnson, however, might still be getting sleepless nights over that infamous move.

The hilarious revelation came when the 28-year-old showed up to the Good Morning America studio this week, where host George Stephanopoulos—upon learning that he used a harness to recreate the move—asked him, “So you had to think about it when you recreated it, which is why you wore the harness? [laughing]”

To this, Barkley revealed, “That’s when I realized what I did was super hard. When they ask you to recreate something and you have to be strapped into a harness, it [shows] how cool it was. And also, how dangerous the play was, and the reason my mom likes when my feet stay on the ground.” Interestingly, for Tonya, football is not a sport she’s always been a fan of. In fact, she only started watching it after her son’s knack for the game at a young age. Meaning? We can’t blame the mother for refusing to understand everything players do on the gridiron… 

“When [Saquon] does the jumps, I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ Because it’s easy to jump; it’s hard to land… Or when they’re grabbing his helmet or doing little dirty moves, I’m going through changes. I’m the angry one,” Tonya had revealed back in 2017. Barkley’s father, on the other hand, is also on the same team it seems. As Alibay Barkley had also stated in that same interview, “For me, it’s nervousness. I worry that he’ll get hurt.”

But enough of that now, as amid the glitz of Week 9, the running back is also not forgetting what actually matters.

The Super Bowl worry for Saquon Barkley

“The reigning Super Bowl champs…What does it take to do that again?” As simple as this question is, for Barkley, the answer wasn’t easy.

“You know, I learned in recent months that it’s hard to get to the mountaintop, but it’s even harder to stay.” The reigning champions will be front and center as all 31 franchises try to take their throne. But how do you maintain that “sustained success” that got you the Super Bowl last year?

As Barkley admits, “We know what it takes to go out there and win a Super Bowl. And we [were] able to accomplish that. How do you do it again? It’s even harder. I think the way that we do that is [by] focusing on what got us there. And that’s buying into what Coach is telling us. That’s buying into, ‘You can’t be great without the greatness of others.’ And you need a little luck. That’s football.”

“But with the talent that we have, with the coaching staff that we have, if we stay healthy and continue to buy into the mindset of ‘can’t be great without the greatness of others,’ I think we’ll have a good shot.” Do they actually? Let us know your predictions in the comments below.