Eric Dickerson of the La Rams poses just before a-game contrary to the Houston Oilers in 1984, when he set the brand new NFL’s single-12 months rushing list that have 2,105 yards. Photograph: David Madison/Getty Images
Eric Dickerson of your La Rams presents prior to a game title against the Houston Oilers back in 1984, when he place the fresh NFL’s unmarried-year racing record having 2,105 m. Photograph: David Madison/Getty Pictures
Because the a talent Dickerson was sui generis, quicker tailback than simply high straight back whose upright gait was due to the fact unorthodox due to the fact his practice of combining racquetball requirements with a Jheri curl
The newest Hallway regarding Glory tailback and you may miscast heel exactly who lit up the NFL on mid-eighties establishes the fresh new number upright on a job that watched him underheralded towards job and you will misunderstood regarding from it
E arlier that it month Antonio Brownish generated what can function as the extremely dramatic log off within the sports record, getting undressed and you may stalking from the career in the middle of an NFL video game, because the his safeguarding champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers was basically rallying contrary to the lowly Nyc Jets on the move.
Ingrate, Dickerson claims, try just how sportswriters most frequently demonstrated him
“Hell zero,” states the newest 61-year-dated Hall-of-famer. “My mommy would’ve killed me. I am unable to cam for another child. I am unable to chat for what is on the his brain. However, I am going to say this: one day, when he extends to feel an adult man, he’ll look back and 
you can say, Perhaps I shouldn’t have done that…”
Back to the fresh mid-eighties and you can 90s Dickerson was not just idea of because the Antonio Brown of that date. He had been thought to be a whole lot more sinister: a very arrogant powering right back exactly who destroyed South Methodist’s ascendant program, played hardball towards the La Rams and you may or even sulked their means due to eleven NFL year – them, of the his reckoning, underpaid. And to the fresh new ear of the satisfied local off Sealy, Tx – the little mattress-to make area where he recalls whites and blacks practically life style towards opposite edges of the railway tune – you to keyword sounded a little too much like some other that begins with an enthusiastic Letter. Ahead of a beneficial 1990 online game during his go out to your Colts, Dickerson recalls exercising aside getting warmups being met from the an excellent flag out of a black colored kid within his Zero 30 jersey using red lipstick, carrying a deep-fried chicken base, that have an effective watermelon on one hand and you can a collection of currency on the other side. That were Colts admirers. “I found myself an adverse, theif back to the latest 80s,” Dickerson says. “Right after which somebody meet me and are usually instance, Your isn’t nothin’ eg they make you over to feel.”
Immediately following decades of being shed due to the fact greatest back Dickerson fundamentally establishes the brand new number straight into the View My Cig, an autobiography the guy co-authored with others magazine’s Greg Hanlon. About book Dickerson will pay homage to his adoptive parents, addresses the fresh notorious Trans In the morning current you to nearly led to the new NCAA banning South Methodist School of competitive sports, and ebbs and you can streams of his underheralded NFL community. Threaded during is actually digressions towards the competition and the tablet-swallowing that has been in style throughout the his NFL day – also his personal entry to Darvocet, a now-banned opioid painkiller, in order to relaxed his nerves prior to online game. Dickerson also details their playboy misadventures off of the job, maybe not the very least the amount of time the guy too quickly ended a romantic interlude that have Pam Grier because the he dreadful breaking his Rams curfew. “Whenever I look for the lady during the a film,” he breaks. “I’m such as for instance, You’d your chance. You’d it!”
Eric Dickerson works golf ball to the Indianapolis Colts through the an excellent 1991 video game against the Los angeles Raiders at the Los angeles Art gallery Coliseum. Photograph: Stephen Dunn/Getty Photos
And even though their 13,259 community yards (the newest league’s 2nd-high mark as he retired when you look at the 1993) have traditionally while the become eclipsed repeatedly, the 5-date All-Specialist possess what might function as the just a couple suggestions that truly count inside expert football: the new newbie single-season rushing basic (1,808) in addition to full unmarried-season rushing record (dos,105), and that Dickerson hit the very next year. Besides provides men and women number become more hallowed as NFL has evolved into the a solution-quirky group, but in possible of your own solitary-season rushing mark, the athlete who will come romantic seems to fall apart shortly afterwards.
