Saints John Ridgeway had “choice words” with new defensive line coach

By Ross Jackson

Sometimes when players team up, they have to put some history behind them. Perhaps they were rivals with separate teams before landing on the same one years later. Or, sometimes, even bad blood from high school or college days can require some pacification once players put on the same jerseys in the pros. 

Other times, it’s a player and a coach that need to address some things from their past. That was, hilariously, the case for New Orleans Saints defensive tackle John Ridgeway III and defensive line coach Bo Davis. 

“So, interesting about Bo,” Ridgeway said during his Wednesday post-practice media availability. “When I transferred from Illinois State, and he was the Texas (defensive line) coach, me and him had a funny phone call when I told him I wasn’t going to go to Texas. Because I’m a big ‘horns down’ guy. I went to Arkansas instead and me and him had some choice words thrown back and forth at each other.”

Some bad blood between player and coach? Not so much. The two have since patched things up. 

“When I found out he was our (defensive line) coach, I still had his number,” Ridgeway continued. “I called him up and I was like ‘Yo, man. We good? No hard feelings, right? We’re on the same team now.’ Just kind of squashed it and let bygones be bygones. So he was cool about it.”

Ridgeway recounted the story with great humor and levity on Wednesday. It’s a great display of how much relationships shift and grow and change in the game of football. 

It’s clear that the relationship between the two is holding strong. Ridgeway has looked good throughout camp at a deep position. He’s returned to his comfortable nose tackle role, which he played often until he landed in the NFL and had to learn more techniques. 

Now, he’ll just worry about showing his best work and convincing Davis to keep him around. 

“Hopefully he keeps my a**,” Ridgeway said.