Former Patriots RB Explains His Experience Going Through ‘Fat Camp’
Belichick once put Stevan Ridley in 'Fat Camp' during his rookie season.
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When it comes to where a particular player is forced to play based on their weight, it’s apparently a serious business.
Former New England Patriots running back Stevan Ridley recently appeared on the Games With Names podcast with Julian Edelman, with Ridley recounting a story from when he first arrived in Foxboro after he was drafted in the third round during the 2011 Patriots Draft.
According to Ridley, he came into his first year with the team weighing 238 pounds, which is apparently above the playing weight that then-head coach Bill Belichick had in mind for him.
Ridley revealed that after trying to plead his case when it came to the target weight of 220 that he was given, the rookie quickly learned that there would be a significant cost in place unless he complied with Belichick’s request.
“You get to New England, and of course, you’re going in there, and it’s Bill Belichick,” explained Ridley. “Bill’s intimidating, bro. You got to give it to him, man. He knows what he’s doing. He’s got a system in place, and you don’t mess with him. You know what I mean? You just don’t. You respect him. You’re in the presence of one of the greatest ever do it, if not the greatest coach ever do it.”
“[Harold] Nash gets in there. Coach Nash is our strength coach. And he’s like, ‘Ridley, hop on the scale.’ I hop on the scale. I think I was tipping that thing between 235, 240. I’m an SEC running back between the tackles. I’m a big bat.”
“Nash is like, ‘Ridley, you got some work to do.’ I’m like, ‘All right. I ain’t scared of work.’ ‘Coach said, you got to be at 220.’ I said, ‘220? How?’ I said, ‘Nash, you’re tripping. I thought you were tripping, bro.’ He said, ‘Don’t ask me. I’m just telling you what the boss man said.’ I said, ‘Well, which boss man are we talking about?’ He said, ‘You can go see the headman if you want to.'”
Ridley then went on to paint the picture of the meeting with Belichick, with the rookie making what Edelman called “a long-a** walk down those hallways” to Belichick’s office.
“Berj [Najarian] looked at me. I was like, ‘Berj, is coach available?'” Ridley asked. “And he looked up. And I was like, ‘I just need to talk to him real quick.’ When I walk in there, Bill’s sitting behind his desk, and he’s like, ‘Come on in and sit down. So I walked in and sat down. He’s like, ‘What you got, Rid?’ I said, ‘Coach, I need to talk to you about this weight.’ I was like, ‘I just weighed in. And Coach Nash told me at the weight that you have told him that you want me to play at. And I’m just making sure this is the right weight and this is not a mistake?'”
“He said, ‘What’s the number? I can’t really remember what I had.’ I say, ‘Well, Coach, this weight that you want me at,’ I said, ‘Coach Nash said, You want me at 220?’ I said, ‘That’s impossible. I’m just telling you right now, I don’t know what it is.’ I said, ‘I don’t know how you want me to get there. I’ll bust my ass and do whatever.’ But I’m like, 220?”
Ridley then went on to try and make his case, pulling out his driver’s license and sliding it across the desk. His point was to show Belichick that at the age of 15 was when he last weighed 220, which was a weight he claimed he hadn’t been since high school.
“I said, ‘Can I tell you about me?’ And he was like, ‘Sure.’ He’s just dry. He’s not doing much. I pulled out my driver’s license. It’s a true story. I pulled out my driver’s license. I said, ‘Coach, look, I just want to show you this. I just want to tell you, if you could look at my driver’s license,’ I slid it on his desk. I’m bold as a rookie.”
“I said, ‘These numbers that are on my driver’s license from when I got my permit in high school before I even got a driver’s license, my permit. On my permit at 15 and a half years old, I was 5’11”, 220 pounds. That’s how much I weighed in high school.’ I said, ‘Coach, you mean to tell me that you want me to drop from 238 all the way down to 220?’ He looked at me and he said – kind of smacked those lips – ‘Well, Rid, I mean, really, I think it’s only about $563 per pound per day that you’re overweight. So it’s really up to you.'”
“And I said, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Per pound per day.’ And he doubled down on it. I was like, I can do quick math, bro. I’m third-round draft pick. I ain’t got money like that. So fat camp, I went. You know what I mean? I’m like, Screw it, coach. If that’s how we’re going to go about it, there’s nothing I can do.”
Ridley explained that fat camp involved him coming to the facility at 5:00 am every morning and running on the treadmill, trying to burn off the weight ahead of the deadline he was given. He admitted that the structure and experience made him a good professional early on.
“[Team Nutritionist] Ted [Harper] put me on this strict diet. I had to come into Fat Camp, which was running before practice. We had to come in and even do our workout before practice in the mornings, or we had to go and do our workout after practice once we got off the field. I was always an early riser, so I came in early in the morning.”
“So fat camp, I was basically in there with all the guys who were overweight that were trying to cut weight. So I would have to go in every morning. I’m talking about it’s still dark outside at 5: 00 AM and just hit the treadmill and run. That was the first time that I really, I think the structure, and I look back on it, I’m like, that structure and that discipline, it made me a good pro because I legit had to drop this weight for the simple fact that I was not going to give up my money.”
“And let’s do the math. If I’m 238 and the weight is 220, let’s do that times 563 bucks times 18 per day. My paycheck is going to be pretty thin. The Massachusetts state taxes weren’t too forgiving. You know what I mean? I didn’t need to be giving away any extra.”
Ridley said that joining him in ‘Fat Camp’ was teammate Marcus Cannon, who Edelman joked would often try to ‘cheat the scale’ and was caught several times trying to do it.
“Canon used to cheat the f***ing scale. Remember that?” said Edelman. “One time, Marcus Cannon, he used to have to weigh in all the time. He was always in fat camp, probation all the time. He would go in and he would do it with a towel on, his weight, and then he’d have a pencil right here so he could leverage himself up.”
“He could lean on it and lift it up, and he would f***ing make it. They caught him three times. He was in fat camp like his whole career.”
As far as whether or not the loss in pounds helped him, Ridley admitted that Belichick may have been on to something.
When asked by Edelman if Rildey was better at 220, he admitted that he definitely was.
“Quick as a cat, dude,” said Ridley. “Freaking nasty, dude. Once I got to that plan, weight, I’m like, ‘Hey, Bill knows what the hell he’s talking about.'”
“My four years in New England, I played at 220, but bro, I never was a top-end guy. I never had breakaway speed. So, I always prided myself on living by five yards of carry. If I get five yards every time I touch this peel, that’s halfway to a first down. I can bang it out with whoever. DB, safety. I used to hit those motherf***ers like speed bumps, bro. I wasn’t even worried about it. I was just downhill with it.”
“But once you got to the league and you had to lose that weight, you became more of a pro. You know what I mean? So Bill went back, and after we didn’t get the negotiation the first time, I think it was about halfway through the season, I’m like, ‘Coach, can I get a couple of pounds? Give me a little bit here or there.’ He still didn’t lighten up. But it was just like, I learned to respect that, Bro, don’t question. Just do.”
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Great story. Funniest thing I’ve read in a long time and another testimant to the greatest coach ever.