Over the past few days, sports fans have been wondering whether Charles Barkley and Saquon Barkley are related to each other in any way. It is understandable why fans are curious about this, considering that the two sporting personalities share the same last name. As another NFL season comes to a conclusion, we delve into the family history of the Barkleys.
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Saquon Barkley and Charles Barkley are not related to each other. They just happen to have the same last name. Apart from the last name that they carry, they have one more thing in common – being big names in the American sporting fraternity.
Saquon, who was one of the five children of Alibay Barkley and Tonya Johnson, was born in the Bronx, New York, on February 9th, 1997.
The Penn State alum has been part of the New York Giants since he was drafted by the franchise in 2018. Even though the running back hasn’t been part of the Super Bowl yet, he’s had a fairly successful career, winning the 2018 Offensive Rookie of the Year and two Pro Bowl selections.
Charles Barkley tried his luck with Football as well
Charles Barkley was born in Leeds, Alabama on February 20th, 1963. Despite facing several hardships as a kid, Barkley realized that basketball was his calling. After dominating the college basketball circuit for three years, he decided to declare for the 1984 NBA draft where he was selected as the fifth pick. In 1989, Sir Charles got married to Maureen Blumhardt and welcomed his only child – Christiana Barkley – in the same year.
Barkley had an impressive career, representing a total of three franchises – the Philadelphia 76ers, the Phoenix Suns, and the Houston Rockets. However, there was a slim chance of Chuck being a professional football athlete in the NFL. The 6ft 6” star did attempt to play football. However, after bleeding and being exhausted on the first day, Barkley decided to put an end to his dreams of joining the NFL.
“I played football for one day… I was sitting there bleeding. Hands all beat up. Everything hurts… I’m sitting there, I’m exhausted. I’m bleeding, couple of places, head hurting. Coach says, ‘I’ll see y’all tomorrow.’ ‘I’m not doing this sh*t tomorrow,’” Barkley said.
The basketball world is lucky that Barkley was frustrated on the first day itself. However, standing at 6ft 6” and weighing around the 250-pound mark, the Chuckster would’ve made a great defensive tackle.
