Q&A with Patriots Running Back Stevan Ridley

Photo via New England Patriots Facebook

A couple of months ago, you tweeted, “Mufasa dying and the day I found out wrestling was fake are the reasons I have trust issues.” So The Lion King left an impression on you?

Absolutely, that was a letdown, dude. That was a letdown. You know that every little kid watches wrestling and every kid watches The Lion King, and those are two sad moments. When I tweeted that, I was sitting there with my best friend, who actually moved up here with me, and we like to mess around on Twitter and Facebook. It’s just really funny to interact with the fans and hear what they have to say.

I was going to say, ’cause Mufasa went down pretty early in the movie. There was a lot of time to recover there.

Hey, look, at the end of the day, that was a sad moment. So nobody’s happy about that.

I understand you met up with some random fans from Twitter for lunch yesterday.

I’ve seen a lot of people say they’re going to do that, but I just thought, How crazy would it be to actually try it and see where it goes? And it was pretty fun—we ate and had a casual conversation. I ended up meeting with a whole bunch of people, so it got out of hand, but it was fun.

You posted some pictures—can we talk about the pants you were wearing? What are those, like camo-patterned skinny jeans?

Man, I have anywhere from seven to 15 pairs of different camo-patterned pants. I guess it’s just a southern thing. If you ask any of my teammates, I pretty much wear anything that anybody doesn’t have. I hate being a follower, I hate doing what anybody else does. I’ve got to have my own style, man. I could care less what other people say—if I like it, I’m going to wear it.

You got the other running backs on the team into wearing adult onesies, right? I didn’t actually know those existed, but I guess you like those, too.

I do, I do. I’ve got some of the offensive linemen in them today. I’m trying to get the whole team converted to onesies. They’re pretty easy—you just put your underwear on and hop in your onesie and you’re good to go. I don’t know how you can mess up with that. I mean, not many people can wear a onesie to their job every day, but we’re privileged to be able to do it, so why not try it out?

So it’s the convenience?

It’s the convenience, it’s the craziness, it’s the madness of it all, that people can’t believe that a grown man is walking around in a onesie. But look, I’m 23 years old and I’m just having fun and enjoying life and playing this game I love to play.

Have you got Brady in one yet?

I’m trying, man…not yet. He’s so tall that I’m struggling at getting the size right, but you can best believe I’m trying to get him in one before the end of the year. It might go worldwide if I can get Brady in there.

You’ve had a great year, but one of the knocks on you has been fumbling. How have you tried to work on that?

Any fumble is a bad fumble, and I’m pretty mad about it. So I try my best not to let it happen, and I try my best not to live in the past and just move forward. I can’t afford to put balls on the ground if I want to keep running in New England.

You know how in The Program, they give one guy the football and he has to hold onto it all day while his teammates try to steal it? Have you ever had to do that?

Actually, yes, when I was at LSU. They really did huddle up on me a few times, and they played games and tried to get three or four guys on you, or tried to catch you in the middle of a meal and knock it out. They didn’t get it off of me, of course. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

Important question: Have you ever been out partying with Gronk?

Yes, I have. And I can say it was quite an experience. Now, is it as wild as people may think it is? No, not at all. But I can tell you that Gronk does know how to have fun.