Eric Dickerson
Eric Dickerson
Eric Demetric Dickersonis a former college and professional American football player who was a running back in the National Football Leaguefor eleven seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. Dickerson played college football for the SMU Mustangs of Southern Methodist University and was recognized as an All-American. He was selected in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft and played professionally for the Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Raiders, and Atlanta Falcons of the NFL. During his NFL...
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth2 September 1960
CitySealy, TX
I think the Colts use my skills well.
I'll tell you one thing about me: I'm very private. I always have been private. People think I'm callous, arrogant. I didn't like the media attention.
Running is so natural to me. When I was running track, people used to ask me, "When are you gonna start running hard?" The wind hits me in the face, and I feel so smooth - Man, I love to run!
Playing the running back position, your legs, that's your living, that's how you make your living. You have to have great thighs, knees, everything.
Them sportswriters don't even know how to put uniforms on, most of 'em.
I don't love football the way I once loved the game. I don't look at it as fun anymore, and it definitely used to be fun. A lot of the fun has been taken away from it, I guess, because you go through so much on the field and off the field.
I love golf. But do you know how I got good at golf? Because of Charles Barkley. I was playing with Charles, Michael Jordan and Roy Green, and Charles was talking so much trash. On every shot, he was talking trash. So I left the tournament, and I went and practiced for a year and half.
I don't give players a chance to hit me.
I've stayed buddies with my old buddy Jackie Slater. I talk to Jackie Slater. I play golf with Marcus Allen a lot. I play golf with Marshall Faulk a lot. My buddy Craig Young, he lives up in New Mexico. I still talk to a lot of the guys.
She told me I wasn't playing for the coach, I was playing for myself.
When you look at guys who get recruited, most of the best athletes, they come from poor families. I don't forget. I was a junior looking through my mother's stuff and looked at her bank statement, and we had $30 in the bank.
The perfect fit for L.A. would be the St. Louis Rams. I really believe that. I know their stadium deal is about expired, or it is expired. They're working through that. I think it would be the old Los Angeles Rams in town.
In the NFL, you have a short shelf life. As a running back, if you're the first pick, and you're NFL life expectancy is only 3.5-6 years, your first big contract might not come until three years in - well, you might never get there. They need to get those signing bonuses up front because nothing is guaranteed.
In the NFL they talk about 'contracts,' but it's not really a contract, it's a one year agreement. If you have a 10 year contract, it means nothing. If you get cut in the NFL, you get nothing. People don't talk about that.