Every four years, the Giants and Jets face off at MetLife Stadium for city bragging rights. And this time around, both teams certainly want to come away with a win as they've struggled at this point in the season.
For star RB Saquon Barkley, his focus is solely on giving his Giants team that win. But there's also some family bragging rights at stake as well.
As a child, Barkley was a Jets fan, and that was due to his father, Alibay's, loyalty to the green and white. In fact, the man has a Jets tattoo on his forearm.
So you could say things may be a little weird for the Barkley family come 1 p.m. on Sunday.
"Yeah, it's kinda weird because he has a Jets tattoo so even if he wears a Saquon Barkley jersey, he's still repping the Jets," Barkley said after practice on Thursday. "If you've ever met my dad, he's been a Jet fan his whole life. So is he going to root for the Jets? Yes. But he's going to root for the Giants and his son at the same time. So he gets the best of both worlds…"
What would you do? Would you root for your son or daughter, even though they're playing against your favorite team?
Alibay Barkley has certainly made up his mind with this addition: he won't just be wearing his No. 26 jersey on Sunday. Instead, he revealed in an NFL video on Wednesday night that he'll be donning a Joe Namath jersey to take things a step further.
Saquon Barkley confirmed that will be the case, and even admitted he bought him that jersey before he entered the NFL.
"I think he's going to wear a Jets jersey. It's going to be an interesting one, but I'll give it to him because it's a Joe Namath jersey," Barkley explained. "I think I got him that jersey, the Joe Namath one."
It's a heated rivalry between both sides to begin with. But Barkley and his father will raise the stakes higher with their loyalties as well.