Comedian Kevin Hart is blaming his age for an injury he suffered in a foot race with former NFL running back Steven Ridley.
“I don’t want you to be alarmed, but I’m in a wheelchair,” Hart said in a video posted on Instagram. “Why? Well, because I tried to jump out there and do some young stuff — tried to go out there do some young man stuff, and I was told to sit my ass down.”
The 44-year-old, who will star in “Borderlands” next summer opposite Cate Blanchett, characterized his post as a public service announcement.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the age 40 is real,” he said. “I’ve told my men and women out there, 40 years old and above, it’s not a game, respect that age, respect that age, or that age will, will make you respect it. I was just forced to respect it.”
Hart explained that he got into a debate with his friend, Steven Ridley, who played eight seasons in the NFL including winning a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, about who was a faster runner.
“Those that know me know I’m pretty fast,” the comic said. “Steven said, ‘Kevin, no way you will beat me.”
So the two had a race.
“I said, ‘Bet!”” Hart continued. “We get out there, we go run the 40 yard dash.”
“Guys, I blew all my shit,” he said. “Tore my lower abdomen, my abductors. I don’t even know what that is, but I tore ’em. I tore those two.”
“I can’t walk. Sit my ass down. This is 44,” he riffed.
Hart was previously injured in 2019, when he was left with major back injuries following a car crash.
“What are we competing for at this age?” he mused in his post. “What am I doing? Why did I even race?”
“What was I thinking, son?” he concluded. “God, I got to be the stupidest man alive.”