A 40-Year-Old NFL Record May Fall

As far as NFL records go, it's one of the most coveted: Saquon Barkley of the Philadelphia Eagles is now just 100 yards shy of the season rushing record set by Eric Dickerson in 1984. The details:

• Closing in: Barkley rushed for 167 yards on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, giving him 2,005 for the season, reports CBS News. He is just the ninth player to eclipse 2,000 yards in a season.
• 16 vs. 17: Dickerson set the record with 2,105 yards four decades ago, and a major point of conversation is that Dickerson did it in a 16-game season. Teams now play 17 games.

• Rest or play? One big question is whether Barkley will even play in next week's finale because Philly has clinched the No. 2 playoff seed and the game is essentially meaningless, notes Outkick. Should he risk injury? "The way I look at it is if it's in God's plan, then it is," Barkley said after Sunday's game. "I'm not overly trying to go get it. I'm scared of it. I would love to. But at the end of the day, also we got bigger things that we're focusing on."
• Dickerson's view: The 64-year-old Dickerson is not rooting for Barkley to take his record. "When you get those records, you want to hang on to them," he tells USA Today. "No matter if it was in bowling and you had 30 strikes in a row, you don't want nobody to break that. ... Those are true accomplishments. You can always look back and that record's been held for 40 years now."
• A little extra drama: The Eagles play the New York Giants next week—the team that opted not to re-sign the 27-year-old Barkley during the off-season.

(More NFL stories.)