I do not agree with this. A ball that has been fumbled can take many random bounces some may wind up unfavorable but there is still skill envolved in recovering fumbles and it is not just luck. For the record we have recovered way more of our forced fumbles than have been retained if it was just completely random it would be 50/50.
I've posted this many times recently but here we go again - look at the last 3 games between the Giants and the Patriots.
2007 - SB
NE forces 2 NYG fumbles, but the Giants recover both
NYG force 1 NE fumble, and the Giants recover it
2011 - Regular season
NE forces 2 NYG fumbles, and each team recovers one
NYG force 2 NE fumbles, and the Giants recover both
2011 - SB
NE forces 2 NYG fumbles, but the Giants recover both
NYG force 0 NE fumbles
So over these three games, the Patriots forced 6 Giant fumbles, but only recovered 1 of them. Meanwhile, the Giants only forced 3 Patriot fumbles, but recovered all 3.
So of the 9 total fumbles in those 3 games, the Giants only caused 3 (33.3%) of them, but they recovered 8 (88.9%) of them.
Let's also look at it this way, using the 2011 season as a whole.
The Giants forced 28 fumbles and recovered 16 of them (57.1%). During the regular season, the Giants forced 21 fumbles and recovered 11 of them (52.3%). But during the playoffs, the Giants forced 7 fumbles and recovered 5 of them (71.4%).
The Patriots forced 26 fumbles and recovered 12 of them (46.1%). During the regular season, the Patriots forced 21 fumbles and recovered 11 of them (52.3%). But during the playoffs, the Patriots forced 5 fumbles and recovered only 1 of them (20.0%).
So during the regular season last year the Pats and Giants (amazingly) forced the exact same number of fumbles (21) and recovered the exact same number (11). But during the playoffs, the Giants forced 7 fumbles and recovered 5 (while recovering all 3 of their own lost fumbles) while the Patriots forced 5 fumbles and only recovered 1 (while recovering only 1 of their 3 lost fumbles).
It's not like the Giants suddenly stepped up their fumble-recovery ability. Both teams went to the Super Bowl and worked incredibly hard, scrapping and clawing their way in every game. But the ball bounced for the Giants on more fumbles, plain and simple.
EDIT: To put it another way, look at this play (the Nicks fumble in the Super Bowl).
http://thesportsswami.blogspot.com/2012/03/nicks-fumble.html
There are *SIX* Patriots around the ball, and *ZERO* Giants, besides Nicks, in the picture. And do you know what happened on the play? The ball popped out backward and bounced right to a Giant player who was trailing the play about 7-8 yards away, completely out of the picture. That ball could have bounced anywhere, but it just happened to bounce in the one place where a Giant was standing. Credit the Giant player for hustling, but the ball literally bounced *RIGHT* to him. All six Patriot players were hustling too, but the ball didn't bounce toward any of them.
The same thing happened when Bradshaw fumbled after the interception on the deep ball to Gronk. He fumbled at the Giant 10 and it bounced right to a Giant player following the play. Incredible.