Saquon Barkley Helped Raise An Unbelievable $1.3 Million To Help The Homeless, Thanks To A Sleep Out At MetLife Stadium

New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley knows firsthand how tough it can be to deal with homelessness. Now he's doing what he can to help those dealing with it themselves.

And he's doing a lot.

Barkley hosted a Sleep Out event at MetLife Stadium along with Covenant House, The latter is an organization that works to keep America's youth off the street.

350 people slept outside — and that couldn't have been easy considering temperatures were in the low 30s — to raise money for the organization.

And raise money they did. According to NJ.com, the event raised a staggering $1,310,577

“That was a past that, I guess I wasn’t really comfortable speaking out on, or grasping that that actually was a part of my life,” Barkley said on Thursday during the event.

Saquon Barkley Talked About How Much This Event, Cause Meant To Him

The former Penn State Nittany Lion hasn't always been open about being homeless for a brief part of his childhood. However, he talked about realizing that those experiences allow him to help those experiencing similar situations.

“I just wanted to put it in the past. But no. That’s why I’m able to sit there and have these conversations with these young adults and listen to everything they’re saying. They hit home for me.”

The Giants have a long-running partnership with Covenant House and this is the fifth year that Barkley has been the face of it. In fact, he hosts guests from Covenant House and other organizations.

“They help me more than I help them,” Barkley said. “Everyone knows I’m a competitor and what football means to me, but football is such a short period of your life. I’ve realized that at 25-26 years old, and now I’m able to have these conversations with these young adults and there’s so much more that’s going on in this world, and so much more that you can do outside of football. It brings me back to reality.”

Good stuff from Saquon Barkley. He sounds like a heck of a dude.

After learning all of this, it's no surprise that he is the Giants' Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee for the second straight season.

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