Stevan Ridley talks Bernard Pollard hit

We all remember watching New England Patriots feature back Stevan Ridley lowering his head just a little, and then seeing Baltimore Ravens strong safety and Patriots Public Enemy No. 1 Bernard Pollard leveling Ridley. Knocked out cold, the ball spilled out from Ridley and was recovered by the Patriots. But in that moment, the most important and scary thing was watching Ridley lying on the ground, motionless. Thankfully he was fine, but it was an extremely scary moment for New England Patriots fans.

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Stevan Ridley talked about the Pollard hit with ESPN’s Steve Levy. In the interview, Ridley showed a lot of class and even wished the best for the Baltimore Ravens and Bernard Pollard. I’ve made my thoughts known on Pollard more than a few times on this site, and I believe some of the comments directed at him from Patriots fans (almost all of the comments, really) are unwarranted and over-the-top. Although a play like the one on Ridley was a devastating one, it was just a “football play” and there wasn’t a malicious intent on Pollard’s part. Give credit to Ridley for realizing that and saying a classy and intelligent statement to Levy. This is why I love the Riddler.

When asked about what he remembers after the hit he said, “Being completely honest, not much, man. Running the football, unfortunately it’s what comes with the sport that we play. It’s a contact sport. He just came down and made a play, tried to make a physical tackle, and that’s what he did. Unfortunately it was me. You hate it any time to see a player go out like that, but it was me this time. All I can say is that I can bounce back and I live to see another day. And I’m thankful.”

These quotes from Ridley help put a bad memory in perspective, and it makes me think even more highly of Ridley. He said all the right things in that interview, and I encourage you to watch the video and the write-up from ESPN Boston’s Mike Reiss. I also enjoyed his quote on “patting eachother on the back”, so I encourage you to click on the piece above to hear/read more from Ridley.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.