I don’t like the way Stevan Ridley gets labeled as a fumbler. He’s coughed it up a little more often than other backs, but I don’t think it’s fair to label him as some kind of buffoon who can’t hang onto the ball.
Ridley has fumbled less often, for example, than either Adrian Peterson or Frank Gore. I think Ridley gets the tag because Bill Belichick benched him on couple of occasions for said fumbles. And Ridley had the one huge fumble in an AFC Championship game, contributing to a loss to the Ravens. But I can’t fault him too much for that one (he was knocked out before he hit the ground on a ferocious hit – what do you want him to do?).
The whole area of fumbles has changed over the years. Coaches apparently are doing a better job of examining players and correcting flaws with how they hold the ball or whatever, because they’re fumbling a lot less now than they did in the past. If, for example, you look at all players who ran for over 10,000 career yards before 2000, all but one of those players fumbled more often than Ridley.
Guys like Tony Dorsett, Franco Harris, Eric Dickerson and O.J. Simpson fumbled about twice as frequently as Ridley. If and when they invent a time machine, it would interesting to see how Bill Belichick would coach those guys. I don’t imagine he’d be sending them to the bench.
| PERCENTAGE OF CARRIES ENDING IN FUMBLE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Running back | Carries | Fum | Pct |
| 1989-98 | Barry Sanders | 3,062 | 41 | 1.34% |
| 2011-14 | Stevan Ridley | 649 | 9 | 1.39% |
| 1971-85 | John Riggins | 2,916 | 58 | 1.99% |
| 1982-97 | Marcus Allen | 3,022 | 65 | 2.15% |
| 1979-92 | Ottis Anderson | 2,562 | 56 | 2.19% |
| 1975-87 | Walter Payton | 3,838 | 86 | 2.24% |
| 1957-65 | Jim Brown | 2,359 | 57 | 2.42% |
| 1969-79 | O.J. Simpson | 2,404 | 62 | 2.58% |
| 1983-93 | Eric Dickerson | 2,996 | 78 | 2.60% |
| 1972-84 | Franco Harris | 2,949 | 90 | 3.05% |
| 1977-88 | Tony Dorsett | 2,936 | 90 | 3.07% |
—Ian Allan