NFL’s best revenge games in 2024 season: Saquon Barkley vs. Giants, Super Bowl LVIII rematch & more
Offseason roster shuffling, especially when a player leaves a team for a division rival, can get people heated — to the point where, say, a former franchise great will proclaim an active star “dead” to him. I’ll address that in a moment. Such relocations, though, are not uncommon.
Running back David Montgomery did it last year, leaving Chicago for Detroit in free agency. And speaking of the NFC North, Packers icon Brett Favre spent his final two NFL seasons with the Vikings — enhancing the acrimony between two heated rivals who find themselves back in the same kind of spotlight in this very piece.
We don’t yet know exactly what the 2024 NFL schedule will look like, but we do know each team’s slate of opponents. Which means we can zero in on opportunities for bad blood to be spilled. So, here are 12 of my favorite REVENGE matchups on the ’24 campaign’s docket, in no particular order.
Let’s start off with a banger — just like they do at WrestleMania, which is taking place in Philadelphia this year. Now, it was former Giants running back Tiki Barber who (jokingly?) said Saquon Barkley was dead to him after the star RB signed a big-money deal with the rival Eagles. I get it. There is no love lost between Giants and Eagles fans. It’s one of the most bitter rivalries in the NFL. But I actually think this was kind of a great move, and one that Giants fans shouldn’t be too upset about. Saquon played some fine football during his six seasons in New York, earning a healthy payday with a team that is still in its Super Bowl window (we hope, anyway).
The Giants are in a spot where devoting big money to a running back isn’t the move. The Eagles, on the other hand, probably shouldn’t let their quarterback run for 15 touchdowns, so for them, this signing made a lot of sense. I understand that it’s disturbing for some to think of Saquon in an Eagles uniform, and that Giants fans will be upset when he has a Christian McCaffrey-like impact with their division rival. But dude is from Allentown, Pennsylvania, (fine, Whitehall Township) and should be allowed to go home. Plus, folks should blame the team that didn’t want to pay Saquon before getting mad at the player himself.
