One of the most spectacular displays of athleticism in recent sports history is getting commemorated with a T-shirt launching soon.
The viral Sunday play by Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley came during the team’s 28-23 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Just under a minute into the second quarter, Barkley grabbed a third-down pass from quarterback Jalen Hurts — and then the magic happened.
Barkley breezed by the first defender in his way, then juked past another with a quick spin move, but the dagger came as he approached Jaguars cornerback Jarrian Jones — with his back turned. Barkley leapt over Jones with a no-look reverse hurdle, creating a clip that was reshared by nearly every sports network and social media page.
Barkley pulled off the hurdle-seen-round-the-world in a pair of Nike cleats fashioned after LeBron James’ fourth signature sneaker. Officially named the LeBron 4 Menace 3, Barkley wore a metallic silver style of the cleats that has not been released to the public, but a “Fruity Pebbles” colorway was launched in March at a retail price of $230.
James himself took notice of the feat, posting a photo of the hurdle on his Instagram story. “Must be the shoes!! @saquon you’re INSANE!,” the NBA star wrote.
Nike was also quick to capitalize on the moment. On Monday, the brand cleverly riffed on James’ past “Witness” ads by flipping the text to read backwards in an Instagram post. And now, we’re learning that Nike has even more surprised up its sleeve tied to the viral moment.
Images shared by X account @EldenMonitors show an upcoming Nike T-shirt featuring a close-up of Barkley’s LeBron 4 Menace 3 cleats on the front and the reversed “witness” text on the back. Based on the early leak, the T-shirt will be available in black and white.
As for the jump itself, don’t expect Barkley to re-enact it any time soon. On Wednesday’s episode of the “Air It Out” podcast, the NFL star was asked to give the move a name.
“I don’t know, I kind of don’t want to dub it because I ain’t trying to do that again, to be honest with you,” he told the hosts.
Barkley also explained the play came out of quick-thinking necessity. “What really happened was I was going to hit a double spin,” he said. “I aborted it. So when I spun, I went to spin again and I just like…I thought he was going low. So I was just like, it’ll be cool if I just jumped up, but my body kind of took over.”
An official release date for Nike’s Saquon Barkley T-shirt has not been confirmed, but it’s expected to be available soon. In the interim, readers can shop his jersey now from nike.com.
