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Just saw this tweet:

that's one mr. bobby mitchell! http://t.co/d3CNK9VymA RT @bwebster: @jon_bois I only have one question pic.twitter.com/j5FCvKWIMX

— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) December 12, 2013

Which made me wonder - who really is the fumblingest player of all time? First, it seems only fair to look at fumbles on a per-touch basis. Yes, Terry Metcalf managed to fumble 62 times in 81 games (which is admittedly nuts), but he was rushing, receiving, and returning kicks in that time, so he had the ball in his hands 1226 times over those 81 games. On a pure per-touch basis (since 1960 with a minimum of 300 touches) it looks like it was one Kermit Alexander who was the most likely to put the ball on the ground - 29 fumbles on 329 overall touches (that's a fumble almost 9% of the time he put his hands on the ball). Here's your top 50 overall "leaders":

+------------------+---------+---------+---------------+
| name             | fumbles | touches | fum_per_touch |
+------------------+---------+---------+---------------+
| Kermit Alexander |      29 |     329 |        0.0881 |
| Howard Stevens   |      30 |     372 |        0.0806 |
| Darrien Gordon   |      27 |     338 |        0.0799 |
| Todd Kinchen     |      26 |     334 |        0.0778 |
| Robbie Martin    |      23 |     302 |        0.0762 |
| Ron Smith        |      39 |     542 |        0.0720 |
| Eddie Payton     |      21 |     321 |        0.0654 |
| Speedy Duncan    |      26 |     406 |        0.0640 |
| Walter Stanley   |      24 |     400 |        0.0600 |
| Mike Fuller      |      21 |     353 |        0.0595 |
| Bobby Wade       |      23 |     394 |        0.0584 |
| Sidney Thornton  |      22 |     405 |        0.0543 |
| Alvin Haymond    |      23 |     433 |        0.0531 |
| Steve Odom       |      19 |     367 |        0.0518 |
| Dennis McKinnon  |      17 |     336 |        0.0506 |
| Terry Metcalf    |      62 |    1226 |        0.0506 |
| Stefan Logan     |      17 |     337 |        0.0504 |
| Wayne Patrick    |      18 |     363 |        0.0496 |
| R.W. McQuarters  |      15 |     304 |        0.0493 |
| Alonzo Highsmith |      16 |     325 |        0.0492 |
| Michael Bates    |      20 |     407 |        0.0491 |
| Lionel James     |      32 |     665 |        0.0481 |
| Az-Zahir Hakim   |      25 |     526 |        0.0475 |
| Dexter Carter    |      33 |     696 |        0.0474 |
| Fulton Walker    |      15 |     317 |        0.0473 |
| J.W. Lockett     |      15 |     319 |        0.0470 |
| Mack Herron      |      27 |     581 |        0.0465 |
| Willard Harrell  |      36 |     785 |        0.0459 |
| Joe Auer         |      16 |     350 |        0.0457 |
| Tommy Mason      |      61 |    1354 |        0.0451 |
| Greg Pruitt      |      83 |    1843 |        0.0450 |
| Devin Hester     |      32 |     717 |        0.0446 |
| Mel J. Gray      |      31 |     705 |        0.0440 |
| Rick Kane        |      24 |     550 |        0.0436 |
| Shaun McDonald   |      13 |     303 |        0.0429 |
| Louis Lipps      |      22 |     516 |        0.0426 |
| Scott Laidlaw    |      14 |     330 |        0.0424 |
| Rod Woodson      |      23 |     552 |        0.0417 |
| Troy Walters     |      15 |     362 |        0.0414 |
| Izzy Lang        |      14 |     338 |        0.0414 |
| Michael Lewis    |      19 |     464 |        0.0409 |
| Dick Gordon      |      15 |     368 |        0.0408 |
| Rick Upchurch    |      27 |     662 |        0.0408 |
| Wendell Tyler    |      64 |    1573 |        0.0407 |
| Roscoe Parrish   |      14 |     347 |        0.0403 |
| Bobby Duhon      |      15 |     374 |        0.0401 |
| Tim Worley       |      20 |     500 |        0.0400 |
| Ed Williams      |      12 |     301 |        0.0399 |
| Louie Giammona   |      13 |     327 |        0.0398 |
| Bob Tucker       |      17 |     428 |        0.0397 |
+------------------+---------+---------+---------------+

Note that without a minimum number of touches the leader is Norman Jefferson who managed 5 fumbles on 11 career kick returns (which is likely why he only got 11 career kick returns).

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 12th, 2013 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Pro-Football-Reference.com. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.