For Saquon Barkley, the Super Bowl will be a doubly special occasion!
The star running back, 27, is teaming up with Flipz for the snack’s Flipz Up Your Game Day campaign ahead of the NFL Championship, where he will join his Philadelphia Eagles as they take on the Kansas City Chiefs on Feb. 9. Super Bowl Sunday also happens to be his 28th birthday.
Chatting with PEOPLE ahead of the big game at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome, Barkley says he’s already in “Super Bowl mode.”
“I think the best birthday gift you can have is playing [in the] Super Bowl and the only thing better than that is winning the Super Bowl on your birthday,” he says. “So plans before or after, I really don’t have any idea or any game plan at all.”
“I’m really just focusing on going out there and playing this game and trying to continue to play at a high level,” he adds.
The NFL star added that, when it comes to the Super Bowl, “you never expect it’s going to take seven years to get there.” After being drafted into the NFL by the New York Giants in 2018, Barkley joined the Eagles in 2024. He tells PEOPLE his younger self would be “super proud” of his latest career milestone.
“Not just being here but the adversities and the injuries and never quitting,” Barkley explains. “And I still remember that conversation I had with my dad when I was younger and when I almost quit, he said, ‘You quit one thing in life, you’re going to be a quitter for the rest of your life.’ And that’s what always stuck with me.”
“So I think it’ll definitely be proud but also say that the goal is not just to get there and the dream wasn’t just get into Super Bowl. It is to win it,” he adds.
As for Barkley’s latest partnership with Flipz, the athlete says he is a longtime lover of chocolate-covered pretzels and has been eating the treat for a “very long time.”
He and his fiancée, Anna Congdon, as well as their two children — daughter Jada, 6, and son Saquon Jr., 2 — were by his side as they filmed the fun commercial for the family-favorite snack at their home in Philadelphia. “I don’t know if you really can name a better snack out there, and now it’s cool to see obviously growing up and being an adult and having children, seeing that my kids love it too,” Barkley says.
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When it comes to his favorite Flipz flavor, the NFL star likes to keep to the classics.
“I just saw that they have a blueberry doughnut [flavor]. We have not tried that yet. We might wait to celebrate with that one. Hopefully after a win,” he says. “But yeah, the chocolate is my favorite. It’s the one that I’ve been eating.”
Elsewhere during his discussion with PEOPLE on the set of his new Flipz ad, Barkley revealed that he and Congdon are engaged, adding that he “can’t be the athlete I am and have the success I have in my career without the help of her.” The pair met at Penn State University and have been dating since 2017, before welcoming their two children in 2018 and 2022.
“And now we got a 6-year-old who’s about to be 7, who knows it all already, and then our son who’s all into toys and trucks and cars and he’s just a boy. He likes fighting, he likes playing football. So we cherish all those moments,” Barkley says of his family. “I’d be naive to think that I’ve made it and all the stuff that we are able to accomplish this year was all alone and by myself.”
Eagles fans can check out Barkley’s Flipz ad as his team looks to take home the win during Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.
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