Former Auburn running back Peyton Barber surprised many when he declared for the NFL Draft last month. We know it was surprising because the articles detailing his declaration told us so. The first page of “Peyton Barber going pro” Google search yield results from AL.com, Yahoo and, cough, CollegeFootballTalk linking the words “Barber” and “surprisingly” in the headline.
And, in the typical song-and-dance of the NFL Draft process, it was surprising. He was a redshirt sophomore. Though he churned out 1,016 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2015, he did not garner any All-SEC nods from the league’s coaches. And he joined, at the time, a class of 13 other underclassmen running backs.
But on Wednesday Barber revealed the true reason he went pro.
Auburn RB Peyton Barber reveals "my mother is homeless right now" in answering why he came out for draft.
— Chase Goodbread (@ChaseGoodbread) February 24, 2016
Oh.
Whether or not we should really be surprised when a player attempts to make money at a job he almost certainly can’t perform past the age 29 notwithstanding, Barber’s statement reminds us that football players are real people with real-life issues that most of us are not privy to. And it also makes Barber one of the biggest rooting interests of this spring’s draft.
