Eric Dickerson of La Rams poses prior to a-game contrary to the Houston Oilers in 1984, as he lay the newest NFL’s unmarried-seasons rushing record having 2,105 meters. Photograph: David Madison/Getty Photographs
Eric Dickerson of your own Los angeles Rams poses in advance of a casino game contrary to the Houston Oilers in 1984, when he set the fresh NFL’s single-year rushing checklist that have dos,105 m. Photograph: David Madison/Getty Photos
Once the a talent Dickerson is actually sui generis, faster tailback than simply tall straight back whoever straight gait try once the unorthodox because the his practice of combining racquetball specifications that have a Jheri curl
The new Hallway away from Magnificence tailback and miscast back just who illuminated the NFL on the mid-eighties set this new listing straight on an effective industry you to spotted him underheralded toward industry and you can misinterpreted out-of of it
Age arlier that it few days Antonio Brown produced what can end up being the really dramatic leave within the recreations record, stripping down and you may stalking off of the profession in the exact middle of an NFL games, given that their safeguarding champ Tampa Bay Buccaneers was indeed rallying resistant to the lowly New york Jets away from home.
Ingrate, Dickerson says, is actually how sportswriters most often demonstrated your
“Hell zero,” states the fresh new 61-year-old Hall of famer. “My personal mommy would’ve killed me. I am unable to talk for another guy. I am unable to chat to own what is toward their head. However, I shall say which: someday, when he gets to be an adult son, he’ll review and say, Perhaps I cannot have done one to…”
Back in the eighties and you can 1990’s Dickerson wasn’t simply thought of just like the Antonio Brownish of the big date. He was seen as even more sinister: a supremely arrogant powering back who destroyed Southern Methodist’s ascendant program, played hardball with the La Rams and otherwise sulked his method by way of eleven NFL year – them, by the his reckoning, underpaid. And to this new ear canal regarding the satisfied local of Sealy, Colorado – the small bed mattress-and come up with city in which he recalls whites and you can blacks practically lifestyle on the reverse sides of railroad song – you to definitely keyword sounded a bit too similar to various other that starts having an N. Just before a great 1990 game throughout the their date towards the Colts, Dickerson recalls jogging out having warmups being greeted because of the an effective flag out-of a black kid in the No 31 jersey dressed in red lip stick, carrying a fried poultry toes, with an effective watermelon on one hand and you may a collection of currency on the other side. And they was indeed Colts fans. “I was an adverse, theif into the fresh new eighties,” Dickerson claims. “Right after which some one satisfy me personally and generally are eg, You isn’t nothin’ such they make you off to end up being.”
Immediately after ages of being cast because best back Dickerson eventually establishes brand new record upright in the View My Cig, a keen autobiography he co-composed with folks magazine’s Greg Hanlon. About publication Dickerson will pay respect to their adoptive mothers, address contact information the brand new infamous Trans In the morning current that almost led to the fresh new NCAA forbidding Southern Methodist College regarding competitive sporting events, while the ebbs and streams out of their underheralded NFL career. Threaded throughout was digressions towards the race in addition to tablet-popping which had been in fashion throughout his NFL time – also his very own use of Darvocet, a today-banned opioid painkiller, so you can relaxed his nerves in advance of video game. Dickerson actually information their playboy misadventures from the occupation, maybe not the very least the full time he too soon concluded a romantic interlude that have Pam Grier as the guy feared cracking his Rams curfew. “Each and every time I discover the woman for the a motion picture,” he splits. “I am such as for instance, You had your opportunity. You had it!”
Eric Dickerson works the ball into the Indianapolis Colts throughout a great 1991 games resistant to the Los angeles Raiders from the Los angeles Memorial Coliseum. Photograph: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Although their thirteen,259 profession meters (the brand new league’s second-high draw as he retired when you look at the 1993) have traditionally given that been eclipsed over and over repeatedly, the five-date The-Expert possess what would be the chinese chat room simply two information that really number inside the expert sports: the newest newbie solitary-12 months rushing simple (step one,808) and overall unmarried-year rushing listing (dos,105), and this Dickerson reached the next season. Not only keeps those numbers become more hallowed while the NFL has changed with the a solution-weird league, in your situation of single-season racing mark, every pro just who arrives close appears to fall apart soon thereafter.
