Bill Belichick put me in fat camp: Ex-Patriots rusher Stevan Ridley

Former Patriots running back Stevan Ridley hasn’t forgotten about his welcome from Bill Belichick when New England selected him in the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft.During an appearance on the “Games With Names” podcast, Ridley recalled the ex-Patriots coach putting him in “fat camp” because “I was overweight” as an NFL running back.“I guess we’ll start with how Bill put me in fat camp,” Ridley told host Julian Edelman, a former Patriots wideout and his teammate from 2011-2014 in New England — adding that Belichick wanted him to lose nearly 20 pounds after his LSU tenure.“You have that meeting where you come in there and you’re a rookie and he gives you your playing weight and he brought me into the office because I go into the weight room and [former Patriots strength coach Harold] Nash said, ‘Hop on the scale, Ridley.’ I hopped on the scale and I’m about 235-238 pounds.

I played at LSU around 230 as a running back — eight pounds is a lot, bro.“… I think I was tipping that thing between 235 and 240 pounds… I’m a big back.Hey, I obviously did something right because coach, you drafted me, you like what you saw.” Ridley recalled Nash telling him “you got some work to do” to meet Belichick’s demand of 220 pounds.

“How? I said, ‘You’re tripping, bro.’ I said nah,” Ridley recalled.“[Nash] said ‘don’t ask me, I’m telling you what the boss man said.'”Ridley said he then went to Belichick’s office to meet with him.“I’m not really as scared… I’m naive… I’ll go to talk to Bill,” Ridley said, laughing.

“… I walked in and said coach I need to talk to you about this weight… and I’m just making sure this is the right weight.“… I said [220] is impossible…I’ll bust my ass and do whatever, but can I just tell you a little something about me… I pulled out my driver’s license.Ridley explained that “I was 5-foot-11 and 220 pounds” since he got his driver’s license an...