Saquon Barkley backs MLB players amid salary cap fight with owners

Saquon Barkley knows exactly what it’s like to be stiffed in a salary-cap sport.

The Philadelphia Eagles running back rushed for 2,000 yards and won an Offensive Player of the Year Award just one season after the New York Giants decided not to pay him.

Running backs were getting the short end of the stick before a recent resurgence, as general managers felt that the position was hardly that valuable. The best are still getting paid, but there was a lot of recycling throughout the league.

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Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (26) carries during the second half of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In any case, lots of difficult decisions are made in football, whereas baseball remains a non-capped sport, resulting in $700 million contracts and no cap casualties.

However, MLB owners have officially proposed a salary cap for the first time since 1994 — and we all know how that turned out. The players have remained steadfast in saying that a salary cap is not negotiable, and Barkley is supporting them.

“Whatever is best for the players, I’m with that. Whatever is for the players,” Barkley told Fox News Digital.

“I get how the owners have the power and stuff like this, but we go out there and sacrifice our bodies. Athletes go out there and sacrifice their bodies. I’m not under the pressure of, ‘Oh, you’re an athlete. Go out there and do what you’re told.’ I don’t get with that at all. You should be compensated for what you’re doing, and however way you should be, that’s how it should be. If that’s what they believe over there, that they should have that, and that’s going to benefit them and help them provide for their families even more, then why not? It should happen.”

Commissioner of Major League Baseball Robert D. Manfred speaks during the 2026 All-Star Legacy Veterans Multi-Service Center renovation at Veterans Multi-Service Center on Monday, July 13, 2026, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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Surely, Barkley and other athletes are probably a bit jealous, and he admitted he feels some responsibility as “quote-unquote, one of the faces of the league.”

“I don’t know if that’s going to happen for us. I think we’ve got a little more work to do for that. We’ve got to continue to be more vocal. We’ve got to continue to educate ourselves on it. … I need to do that. I actually had this conversation the other day with my family. But yeah, I’m all for the players, and what the players think is great for them, I agree with it,” Barkley added.

Saquon Barkley of the Philadelphia Eagles takes the field prior to the NFC Wild Card playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field on Jan. 11, 2026, in Philadelphia. (Getty Images)

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MLB is likely headed to an owners’ lockout if the two sides cannot agree to a new collective bargaining agreement by Dec. 1, but the salary cap is each side’s top priority, and they could not be further apart on the issue.

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