Speaker 1: I played football when I was a kid, and you know,
Speaker 1: eight nine years old, you know, playing the fields, you know,
Speaker 1: just hiking the bottom, playing tackle on the ground and
Speaker 1: not the factive. Funny thing is I don't think I
Speaker 1: could do is hike the ball. They wanted me bund
Speaker 1: the ball. I only hike it. I wouldn't get Nobody
Speaker 1: wanted no, but nobody wanted me. Let me be very
Speaker 1: very clear. If you and I have been playing, that
Speaker 1: would have been my rule as well. Let me be
Speaker 1: very clear. I'll toss it to you. I'll stand there
Speaker 1: and toss it. This is Eric Diggerson and I'm part
Speaker 1: of the Pony Express, also an NFL Hall of Fame. Hello,
Speaker 1: Punned and all, and welcome back to another episode of
Speaker 1: Off the Beat, or as I like to call it,
Speaker 1: Off the Beat Sports as I am hoping that you
Speaker 1: know by now, I am your host, Brian Baumgartner. Now
Speaker 1: remember when I said I was going to start bringing
Speaker 1: on some sports guests to the podcast. Well today is
Speaker 1: the day. Now is the time I'm gonna start doing
Speaker 1: some special Thursday editions of the podcast. And there is
Speaker 1: nobody on planet Earth to better start us off than
Speaker 1: the iconic the legendary Eric Dickerson. Now as a running back.
Speaker 1: Eric played for the l A Rams, the Indianapolis Colts,
Speaker 1: among others. He has broken countless records since he entered
Speaker 1: the NFL back in and I don't know if you've heard,
Speaker 1: but Eric is what they call a Hall of Famer, yes,
Speaker 1: having joined both the pro and college halls. As of
Speaker 1: impressive for his career, it doesn't even begin to cover it.
Speaker 1: So for today's episode, we're going to dive into Eric's life,
Speaker 1: from his high school career and his alleged controversy involving
Speaker 1: Pontiac trans am to his favorite moments in the NFL
Speaker 1: and what he's learned about our crazy world through football. Plus,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about his new book, as well
Speaker 1: as one major thing that we have in common. Well
Speaker 1: what are you and Eric Dickerson have in common? You
Speaker 1: might ask? Well, the greatest university on Earth, s m you.
Speaker 1: That's right. So before we get started, I just have
Speaker 1: one more thing to say. Pony up, here's Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak, Bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeaker cooking at every month left over from the
Speaker 1: night people. There he is hail to the Red. What's up?
Speaker 1: I'm going to see you's gonna see you. It's been
Speaker 1: way too long. You still play a golf. I'm still trying.
Speaker 1: What do you mean, I'm still trying trying to play
Speaker 1: when I can. Well, I want to thank you for
Speaker 1: being here. I uh as you know, gotten to know
Speaker 1: you some through golf. Always been a big fan. We're
Speaker 1: fellow sm SMU mustangs, which will we'll discuss in a
Speaker 1: little bit, but I want to start, uh going back
Speaker 1: even further. You were from Texas, see Lee, Texas. I
Speaker 1: understand raised by your great great aunt. Is that right,
Speaker 1: that's right? Yeah, great great nut. And you didn't know
Speaker 1: that this was was not your mom until you were twelve. No,
Speaker 1: I wasn't twelve. I was younger than that. I was
Speaker 1: about let me see, I was in the fifth sixth grade. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: somewhere here. Yeah. My my teacher told me. Really yeah,
Speaker 1: my teacher told me, man, it was because she thought
Speaker 1: you should know, or because she thought, you know, she
Speaker 1: was jealous of my mother. She didn't, Man, small times
Speaker 1: are different, you know. She didn't like my mom, my
Speaker 1: real mother, and I thought my real mother is my sister. Um,
Speaker 1: my mother, I mean, my my real mother was. She
Speaker 1: was a beautiful woman, really good looking, tall six ft tall.
Speaker 1: So she figured she's gonna tell boy. But it didn't
Speaker 1: go over well. No, no, I didn't go well at all.
Speaker 1: I mean not for me. It, dude, I didn't. It didn't.
Speaker 1: It didn't bother me. But my mom because I was.
Speaker 1: I don't forget. I came from school. She told me.
Speaker 1: She said, I was. I was at school and she
Speaker 1: said some did she stay out to class. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: so she's after class. He had me come, she said, so,
Speaker 1: she said, you've seen your daddy. I said, my dad
Speaker 1: at home. She said, no, my boy, your real dad.
Speaker 1: It's a going as your mom. Who your real daddy?
Speaker 1: So that's not your mom? I said, MS read that
Speaker 1: kind of my mother, miss read, mr care, that's not
Speaker 1: your parents. You said, your real mother is Helen and
Speaker 1: then your dad's name Richard Seals go aster. Who Richard
Speaker 1: Seals is? So? And I went straight home and I asked,
Speaker 1: I went, I still remember my mom was standing. My
Speaker 1: dad was sitting and I asked him, my mom, I said,
Speaker 1: who was Richard Seals? And if you just saw the
Speaker 1: look on that what who told you that you know
Speaker 1: my mother and she wanted my my who adopted me.
Speaker 1: She went off. My dad said, settled down. She said,
Speaker 1: settled down. She said what did he What did she
Speaker 1: tell you? I told she told me. She said that
Speaker 1: you and not my parents. My real mom is Helen
Speaker 1: and some guy named Richard Seals and my mother. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh man, you know so she called my
Speaker 1: mother next my mother right next door. I was told.
Speaker 1: I was told she's my sister. She did right next
Speaker 1: door with my with her husband. You know, she was
Speaker 1: consisted with my stepfather. I didn't know it's called him Roberts.
Speaker 1: My mom, my real mother, went to get the gun.
Speaker 1: When to get the pistol, she gonna she was gonna
Speaker 1: really go kill it for real, no joke, She was
Speaker 1: really going to go kill her for for seriously. She
Speaker 1: wanted to get the pistol on. My My dad raised
Speaker 1: her to my mother, and my great aunt raised my
Speaker 1: real mom, and my dad raised her to his daughter too.
Speaker 1: So he said Helen said no, he said, put that
Speaker 1: gun down, You're not gonna kill that woman. So she
Speaker 1: went over to the house because it was only a
Speaker 1: naby like two hundred yards away. You could see the
Speaker 1: house from our house. She went over. Man, she beat
Speaker 1: on the door. Bit you come out of you mother, Man,
Speaker 1: you tell him about Richard. It was a mess, man,
Speaker 1: But you know it didn't phase me. It answers. It
Speaker 1: answers some questions that you know, as a black kid,
Speaker 1: you don't ask your mama no question. They say, boy,
Speaker 1: you don't be asking some kind of question. Yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: But you don't think it didn't have any effect. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean not for you. No, I didn't have no
Speaker 1: effect because I had, Man. I'm gonna tell you, Brian,
Speaker 1: I had to. I had the best parents ever, man.
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody's feel like their parents are the best.
Speaker 1: And you know you got a good parents. Nothing like
Speaker 1: having a good parents. Man. I had a good dad.
Speaker 1: My dad was a good Christian man, I mean, a
Speaker 1: true creature, not not not the word of mouth. You know,
Speaker 1: he didn't have to say it. You just knew it
Speaker 1: by his actions and you know his you know them.
Speaker 1: And my mother, my mother was. She was a good one.
Speaker 1: She was tough. Now, she was really tough. She was
Speaker 1: all about fairness, but she was really tough. I grew
Speaker 1: up with with good parents and may not found out
Speaker 1: my mom my real mother was my mother, and we
Speaker 1: were like sisterant brother then I we really were, I
Speaker 1: mean we were we were tight. So it didn't change
Speaker 1: my childhood, you know at all. I just I think
Speaker 1: God for having really two moms in a sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. How did you find football or was it
Speaker 1: sports at first? Well? It was our sports, you know,
Speaker 1: But I love football. I mean I knew I was fast.
Speaker 1: I was really fast as a kid and just love running.
Speaker 1: You know, I couldn't play We didn't. We didn't have
Speaker 1: a tackle football, you know, it couldn't play until we
Speaker 1: got in the seventh grade because we didn't have pop
Speaker 1: warning it's a little small town. So I had a
Speaker 1: chance to play tackle football and got into seventh grade.
Speaker 1: But I played football when I was a kid, like
Speaker 1: you know, eight nine years old, you know, playing the fields,
Speaker 1: you know, just hiking the bottom, playing tackle on the
Speaker 1: ground and uh not. The fact of funny thing is,
Speaker 1: I don't think I could do with hike the ball.
Speaker 1: They wanted me bun the ball. I only hike it. No,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't get Nobody wanted to, but nobody wanted me.
Speaker 1: Let me be very very clear, if you and I
Speaker 1: had been playing, that would have been my rule as well.
Speaker 1: Let me be very clear, I'll toss it to I'll
Speaker 1: stand there and toss it in your book, which we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about. Your first organized football game in
Speaker 1: seventh grade. You scored six touchdowns. Yeah, and then for you,
Speaker 1: I love fell in love with it. I mean I
Speaker 1: was in seventh grade. We played the Waller Bulldogs. We
Speaker 1: supposed to play the game on a Thursday, and they
Speaker 1: got rained out, so we had to play on a Saturday.
Speaker 1: And uh, the first my first testdown was kickoff kickoff return. Man,
Speaker 1: I was so scared, I mean hard, beating fast. I
Speaker 1: won't forget you know, it's just the jitters. And got
Speaker 1: the ball and ran it back. But touchdown and man
Speaker 1: didn't had another touchdown another one, Like oh, I just
Speaker 1: love this. I just I loved everything about it. You
Speaker 1: can see even when you started playing organized games, nobody
Speaker 1: wanted to nobody wanted to get in front. Man, you know,
Speaker 1: think about it, and I talked about it. I can
Speaker 1: still see that day, you know, it was it was
Speaker 1: still kind of overcast that morning we played. Man, I
Speaker 1: just god, just loved playing it. It was so exhilarating.
Speaker 1: It was so much fun. It was fun being a kid.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I just loved it. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: continue playing well and you move on to high school.
Speaker 1: In ninth grade, I understand you. You get a new coach,
Speaker 1: Ralph Harris. I was my freshman in high school year
Speaker 1: in Front high school. Yeah yeah, Ralph Harris became our
Speaker 1: high school coach. He came from East Texas. And when
Speaker 1: a guy liked I mean honestly, I mean, I just
Speaker 1: keep it honest. I didn't like him. He didn't treat
Speaker 1: us right. And not us. I mean, I mean the
Speaker 1: black kids, the white kids too. Even even even the
Speaker 1: white kids, they were like, man, he the worst. Even
Speaker 1: they didn't like him. And they were like, man, that's
Speaker 1: not right because we couldn't like we like, you couldn't
Speaker 1: have that, Like you had afro. You couldn't have the hair.
Speaker 1: I couldn't touch your ears you have to have it,
Speaker 1: you know, over your ears. You couldn't have any facial
Speaker 1: hair and I have facial hair. No way. Couldn't wear
Speaker 1: gold chains, you know, couldn't have a chain on your neck.
Speaker 1: I think you could wear a watch. You couldn't wear rings,
Speaker 1: you know, just just stuff like that. You know, it
Speaker 1: was all targeting black kids more all the black kids.
Speaker 1: And and then I think that the thing that got
Speaker 1: me was is that our lockers. You couldn't have anything
Speaker 1: in the bottom of your locker, like you couldn't only
Speaker 1: have your shoes, like you couldn't have a piece of paper,
Speaker 1: a pencil, and nothing in the bottom of your lockers.
Speaker 1: And you know it's your kids. They keep a messing locker,
Speaker 1: kind of football locker. Right, So then he comes in
Speaker 1: and he makes all of some run who had stuff
Speaker 1: in the bottom by locker, and it was just bout chance.
Speaker 1: It was all black kids, all the blacks, no whites,
Speaker 1: just all black. And look, man, it wasn't even about
Speaker 1: black and white because the thing, the thing by being
Speaker 1: in that my hometown, is that we all knew each
Speaker 1: other from little kids. You know. It wasn't like this
Speaker 1: the white kid and it was like that's Kyle, you know,
Speaker 1: that's David, that's Eric. That's what it was. It didn't,
Speaker 1: it didn't. It wasn't like black and white. But we
Speaker 1: saw what he was doing. And like I said, even
Speaker 1: the white kids said, man, that's wrong. I mean they
Speaker 1: even said it's wrong. And so you know, I forget.
Speaker 1: We had to run, and I mean when I say run, run,
Speaker 1: we have to run with all. I went to Row
Speaker 1: with our passed on around the tract on the bleachers
Speaker 1: and then finally, uh, guys just one by one star
Speaker 1: quitting and I think I was one. The last one
Speaker 1: was my cousin Bobby, I think quit right before me.
Speaker 1: Bobby Buyers and we still was my my favorite cousins
Speaker 1: and they finally I said, man, it's a stupid I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing this no more. So we all quit. Everybody,
Speaker 1: all the black kids cuittics. That one guy, Winston Brown,
Speaker 1: he was the only one the stage and we finally
Speaker 1: he came to our house in the summer. That coach
Speaker 1: did RALP. Harris came to the house in the summer
Speaker 1: and talked to us about coming back. Before that, a
Speaker 1: guy named James Abernathy got named shock Shack. He was
Speaker 1: from the town over called Brookshire Royal and people who
Speaker 1: hear this, if you're from Texas of Brookshire, Texas, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. The Row the raw Falcons
Speaker 1: that well call and he and over. He was a
Speaker 1: big sports guy and uh he always like you know,
Speaker 1: a little bit like he had. The thing was he
Speaker 1: had a girlfriend and Celie and had a family, wife
Speaker 1: and Brooks. But everybody knew we all knew the girl.
Speaker 1: Well he passed away. Now so uh he comes over.
Speaker 1: He comes over to the house. One day, he comes
Speaker 1: over to my house. Something pull up and he said, hey.
Speaker 1: My mother said, hey, shocks Ames Dickson's here. You know.
Speaker 1: She said, you mind if I talk take erican and
Speaker 1: talked to him for him, and he said, sure, take
Speaker 1: it and talk to him. And Jack was big in
Speaker 1: the sports. He loves sports. So, um, I got in
Speaker 1: the car when we rode around and he said, Ericson, man,
Speaker 1: I heard you quick football. I said, yeah, man, that
Speaker 1: man Precice. I don't like him. I said, no, one
Speaker 1: likes him. And so he just listened to what I
Speaker 1: had to say. So, you know, and it's funny how
Speaker 1: older people and thinking about the shack what much. He
Speaker 1: was saying in his thirties. But I'm teenagers, so so
Speaker 1: he's older than me. So he says, uh, Eric, he says, um,
Speaker 1: so what do you see in this town? I said, Man,
Speaker 1: it's like I don't see nothing. He said exactly, because
Speaker 1: nothing in this time he see let me tell you
Speaker 1: some son. He's said. We heard about this man, we
Speaker 1: heard you're not doing your kids right. But if you
Speaker 1: don't want to play here, come play in Brookshire. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something. He said, the talk about
Speaker 1: you is that you want the best athletes we've seen
Speaker 1: in these parts ever. And the funny thing, you know,
Speaker 1: as a kid, I didn't see that, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't. You didn't know, not at all. I didn't
Speaker 1: see that. I just I was just kid playing sports.
Speaker 1: And he said you should. If you don't want to
Speaker 1: come play and Celia, come playing Brookshire. We love to
Speaker 1: have you over here. So when they drove me back
Speaker 1: at home, my mother said, what did he say to you?
Speaker 1: I told him, I said, he told me that I
Speaker 1: should go back and Play'd be my way out of here.
Speaker 1: And she said, she said, he said, I don't like football.
Speaker 1: My mother hated football, sounding like that sport Eric, she said,
Speaker 1: but I feel like that. Look, I don't like your
Speaker 1: quitting started something quitting. But if you want to play,
Speaker 1: if you don't play in Celia, I'll take We'll drive
Speaker 1: you the Brookshire every day. Brooks was twelve miles away,
Speaker 1: so sah I'll drive you to Brookshire. You know you're
Speaker 1: gonna play over there. I said, well, let me think
Speaker 1: about it. A couple of days later, my best friend
Speaker 1: called me and said, hey, man, it's a rab Harris
Speaker 1: been by your house and now, I said, coming coming
Speaker 1: by all the players how they quit, you know, all
Speaker 1: the black black players, and I want to talk to
Speaker 1: all about me back the next year, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: so shouldn't have. He came by our house talking to
Speaker 1: my mother and my dad and we listened to what
Speaker 1: he had to say. My mother, my mother was real block,
Speaker 1: you know. She said, you know, the way you treat
Speaker 1: these black kids. She says, that's not right, and she said,
Speaker 1: you know, and then a lot of kids are saying it.
Speaker 1: The parents are saying the black kids parents, and white
Speaker 1: kids parents are saying it. Well, I WHENNA trying to
Speaker 1: do better? Blah blah blah it. Oh you know those
Speaker 1: song and dance. You know, I never coached black kids before.
Speaker 1: He had never coached blacks before. He never had so
Speaker 1: that was you know, and that was I was his
Speaker 1: thing too. I mean, you know, he had never coached
Speaker 1: blacks and we had never had we had white coaches.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't no big deal of us. But so finally, um,
Speaker 1: we all came back and we came back and we
Speaker 1: decided to play. We want to stay championship, you know,
Speaker 1: my senior and never look at was no feel good
Speaker 1: story when one of them like, oh everything turned out right.
Speaker 1: But now what one of them stories. I didn't like him.
Speaker 1: It never matched me and him never matched. And I
Speaker 1: won't forget. He wanted me to go to the University
Speaker 1: of Texas. That was his thing, and I Texas, okay,
Speaker 1: but I didn't. I did were eric and I didn't
Speaker 1: like the arrogance. And so he told me, look, if
Speaker 1: you ain't because you don't consider the University of Texas,
Speaker 1: I just tell schools you're not interesting going to college.
Speaker 1: I said, I tell you what, man, I don't need you.
Speaker 1: I said, I don't need you at all. I mean,
Speaker 1: I said, they want me to come to my house
Speaker 1: and get me sure enough. That's exactly how it was.
Speaker 1: Because he would tell him I didn't want to go
Speaker 1: to college, and I tell him, I said, well, I
Speaker 1: don't like him. We don't get along, you know, I
Speaker 1: just don't like him. And that's funny. But and the
Speaker 1: thing about it is that a lot of kids. Coaches
Speaker 1: have really hurt their careers doing that kind of stuff
Speaker 1: because they do it. They and they and they have
Speaker 1: done it to two kids. And I'm sure some coaches
Speaker 1: listening right now that has messed over kids and kids
Speaker 1: did know what I'm talking about, that they'd been messed
Speaker 1: up by coaches or sometimes family members you know, didn't
Speaker 1: do them right. But luckily, my my, my situation was different.
Speaker 1: I thank god, Um, the coaches came to my house
Speaker 1: talk to me, you know, and I didn't have a
Speaker 1: relationship with him, with with with him, and yeah that
Speaker 1: was that was You talked about that first football game
Speaker 1: and remembering it. Did he change your love for the game?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, Oh yeah I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't like it as much you know, with him,
Speaker 1: with him, I didn't like it as much. But for
Speaker 1: my first like say, my first two years with him,
Speaker 1: I didn't like it as much. But after a while,
Speaker 1: you know, you just kind of forget about him and
Speaker 1: just played because you've got other players, you know, the players.
Speaker 1: So I loved it. I did love I love playing
Speaker 1: high school football. But I'll tell a story even at
Speaker 1: the end, like with him, this has been about three
Speaker 1: years ago. He just passed away like a year ago,
Speaker 1: and um, I'm at home. The guy knows. He calls me.
Speaker 1: See like I said, what's up Dan? Now you know
Speaker 1: how good Man? I'm good? Man was say blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. Talk you say, Man, somebody want to say
Speaker 1: hi to you? Like, Okay, get on the phone, say Eric.
Speaker 1: As soon as I heard his voice it was him,
Speaker 1: my heart started beating fast. Just go to show you
Speaker 1: the effect that that that could happen as soon as
Speaker 1: I and I was eight years old. I say said
Speaker 1: hey Eric, I paused, I said, what's up? Ralph? I
Speaker 1: mean that's because I was I was. I went through that.
Speaker 1: I went back to that mode like I said what
Speaker 1: I said, I said, what's up? Man? He said, how's
Speaker 1: it going? I say, I'm good. What's happening? I mean
Speaker 1: because I was really short with him. He said, I
Speaker 1: just want to tell you, man, I've seen your career.
Speaker 1: You had a great NFL career. I want to congratulate
Speaker 1: you on college and everything. I said, thanks, Man, I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. He said, can I just want to say, Man,
Speaker 1: I just want to apologize to you and all the
Speaker 1: guys who I treated you guys. I want to say,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. You know, I've really screwed it up, I said,
Speaker 1: rap I said, man, thanks for saying that. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And I was the last concerce. I mean I did
Speaker 1: because you know, as a kid, you think about did
Speaker 1: I do something wrong? Was it me? You know, maybe
Speaker 1: I could have handled it different, but I knew it
Speaker 1: wasn't right. You know, you know when things are right,
Speaker 1: I need he wasn't treating us right, not just me,
Speaker 1: just a bunch of us. He wasn't treating us all right.
Speaker 1: And like I said, well, no about to the whites
Speaker 1: do sometimes white kids do, but it was mostly us,
Speaker 1: And so I mean that was that was big at
Speaker 1: him too, to apologize and say that not accepted as apology.
Speaker 1: You know I did accepted as apology, but I say,
Speaker 1: pay passed away about it? About it about a year
Speaker 1: or great passed away? That affect though all these years,
Speaker 1: all of the things that you've accomplished since then, and
Speaker 1: hearing his boys, hearing his voice, my heart started just
Speaker 1: pounding and I just almost almost like I got nervous,
Speaker 1: but I was, but I was mad at the same time,
Speaker 1: just to hear him, and so because I knew the
Speaker 1: You know, it's like when you knew something, you know
Speaker 1: something's wrong and you've been treated wrong, you don't forget it.
Speaker 1: These kids don't forget. You know, you could be a
Speaker 1: grown man, but you remember. I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: kids remember the teachers that they didn't like, the coaches,
Speaker 1: they didn't like some of the parents. Did. I didn't
Speaker 1: like his parents, and parents didn't like me. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you win the state championship, as you say, your senior year,
Speaker 1: you end up rushing in the championship game for three
Speaker 1: eleven yards and four touchdowns. Obviously, that whole year you
Speaker 1: start getting recruited and as you say, the coach wasn't
Speaker 1: doing any favors because he wanted you to go to
Speaker 1: Texas and you start looking at and M. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: not really, but yeah, they were looking at Yale. Did
Speaker 1: you ever think you were going to go to an
Speaker 1: M and all honesty, No, I mean they're gonna tell you.
Speaker 1: And there's a good school too. I'm just taking having
Speaker 1: away from them. They're good school, good, good, good alumni everything,
Speaker 1: But they gonna tell you what they had. I won't forget.
Speaker 1: I went to the visit, and they had no cheerleaders.
Speaker 1: It was mostly guys. It's mostly a guy school. Back
Speaker 1: then they had yell leaders. I'm like, oh, hell no,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking in my mind, oh hell no, I ain't
Speaker 1: going to school with all these guys happy with me.
Speaker 1: And then then I didn't like the uniforms. I hated
Speaker 1: them uniform They had the guy with the big chin,
Speaker 1: the aggie. I'm like, oh, hell no, I can't war
Speaker 1: at the uniform. That uniforms, you know, and and and
Speaker 1: the thing about it is brown. You know, little stuff
Speaker 1: like that. You'll be surprised, plays a big role in
Speaker 1: the kid's mind, It really does. They played a big
Speaker 1: role to uniform, no cheer leaders. I'm like, oh no, man,
Speaker 1: I can't do this still. I mean, but I said
Speaker 1: good school. I enjoyed my enjoyed my busy there because
Speaker 1: it was only about and it's only about a d
Speaker 1: fifty miles and Seley, you know, so it was close.
Speaker 1: And I can tell you a story a matter of fact.
Speaker 1: And I went on my trip. So we drove over
Speaker 1: we're driving to win a bank, over to over to
Speaker 1: and then going over the and m for my visit.
Speaker 1: And then when the baker broke down, and uh, we
Speaker 1: pot about seventy eighty miles out, but we're right close
Speaker 1: to a private airport. And the guy goes over to
Speaker 1: goes into the private airport and he can shot a
Speaker 1: private plane like a plane to fly so over. I
Speaker 1: never flown on the plane. So I'm like, you've never
Speaker 1: flown on the plane at all. I've never flow on
Speaker 1: the plane ever. And I'm like, you've still never flown
Speaker 1: on a commercial flight, right, Oh, come on, please, I
Speaker 1: fla private all the time. Please. So anyway, so we
Speaker 1: go over to the to the private airport. It was
Speaker 1: like right like we're broken right right next to it,
Speaker 1: so we can get a private plane. I said, oh no,
Speaker 1: I said, man, I don't fly. I told her, I
Speaker 1: don't fly. I gotta call my mama. So I said,
Speaker 1: I gotta call my mom. So I got on the
Speaker 1: pay phone. I called her and she said, y'all got
Speaker 1: there already. I said, no, ma'am, I said, when the
Speaker 1: bagel broke down. She said, they want to fly. But
Speaker 1: she said fly. I said, yeah, Mama, I said, what
Speaker 1: you think? She said, well, then me going? I never
Speaker 1: get said then they going here and pray. So she
Speaker 1: put the phone down. I waited, I said, there and waited.
Speaker 1: She came back about I think about three or four minutes.
Speaker 1: She came back. She said, okay, going and get on
Speaker 1: the plane. She said, just call him when you get there.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, that's if she just said, don't get
Speaker 1: on it. I said, oh, I'm out. So that I
Speaker 1: was the first time I flew on the plane. There
Speaker 1: was a little plane. I we flew over the A
Speaker 1: and M. That was my first life. There were a
Speaker 1: lot of people from A and M who believed that
Speaker 1: that you were going to come a lot of eggs
Speaker 1: because a lot of eggs in my hometown. To see,
Speaker 1: it's a bunch of aggie. That was an aggetown. It
Speaker 1: really was mostly the Aggetown and we had one of
Speaker 1: the one the big alumni A and M. Booster was
Speaker 1: What's right in Seedy. But like I said, man, I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the trip. I really did. But so how I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna belabor the car thing. But how did you
Speaker 1: then begin to start considering s m U. S MU
Speaker 1: was not at the top of my radar. Okay, the
Speaker 1: school I really want to go to was Oklahoma, right,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go to Curry Switzer Bar Switzer, Right.
Speaker 1: I want to go to school there. My mother would
Speaker 1: not allow it. She wouldn't having it. She can't combarrass.
Speaker 1: Came to my house to recruit. My first real visit
Speaker 1: was California. The first plane, the real the real plane
Speaker 1: influence was coming to l A. I came to visit SC. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I came out here to visit the USC was the
Speaker 1: first time I had a real plane, a big flight,
Speaker 1: like a passenger plane. Flew out of the visit SC
Speaker 1: loved it. Went to the Rose Bowl when they played
Speaker 1: at the University of Michigan. They had the Bantom fumble,
Speaker 1: you know, Charlie fumble the ball and they gave him touchdown.
Speaker 1: I think it was up sell. When they played Michigan,
Speaker 1: I was I was at the game, um, but I
Speaker 1: really want to go to and I like that. See
Speaker 1: I really did it. Just too far, That's what it was.
Speaker 1: Too far. And I love the fight song and everything,
Speaker 1: but I just couldn't come here. And I went to
Speaker 1: to Owe You and man, I just fell in love
Speaker 1: with oh You. I mean it was close enough to Texas,
Speaker 1: you know, the Boomer Sooner thing. Then I met a
Speaker 1: girl over there I met a girl. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: sensing a theme, but yes, all right, you got it.
Speaker 1: Met a girl. Mother was a professor at the University
Speaker 1: of Oklahoma, and she was like, do not come here.
Speaker 1: I won't get it. A mother like, don't come here.
Speaker 1: They treat to play us so bad. Don't come over.
Speaker 1: They don't and they don't have no education. Don't come
Speaker 1: here that. She kept saying, don't come here, but I
Speaker 1: want to go there. But anyway, so oh, you came
Speaker 1: to my house. Bad, I said, Barry Switzer, and I committed.
Speaker 1: I committed to him at my house. My mother was.
Speaker 1: My mom was there and she didn't say much. I
Speaker 1: won't get she didn't say much. And I want to
Speaker 1: come and and like, okay, we're gonna you know, you'd
Speaker 1: beat number nineteen, blah blah. I don't get. They walked out.
Speaker 1: She said, you ain't going to school. She said, a
Speaker 1: real come just like you ain't going to school. I'm like, Mama, now,
Speaker 1: Erica ain't going to school. I'm like, Mama just told him.
Speaker 1: She said, why are you saying that? She said, I
Speaker 1: said that that man is a liar to my barrats witches,
Speaker 1: he's a liar. And I don't trust it, so you
Speaker 1: ain't going there. She said, you're a Texas boy, stay
Speaker 1: in the state of Texas. So man, so boom so man.
Speaker 1: I was confused and because I didn't want to, I
Speaker 1: didn't even like and I didn't like an m. I'm
Speaker 1: like man, and I wasn't sure about because asting you
Speaker 1: wasn't big It wasn't big time enough. They weren't winning enough.
Speaker 1: I mean, they had a great, good program, new coach,
Speaker 1: coach Ron Meyer, but you know, it just wasn't big
Speaker 1: enough for me. I don't think they were big enough.
Speaker 1: And uh, I won't forget. My mother to sit me down,
Speaker 1: and she talked to me, and so she kind of
Speaker 1: talked me into it. You know, I make a long
Speaker 1: story short, and she kind of talked me into it.
Speaker 1: And I'll say it's the best decision she ever made
Speaker 1: for me. I got. I say, I'm so glad I
Speaker 1: went to that school. I'm so glad I went to
Speaker 1: sing you my memories. They're the great football team who
Speaker 1: had the players I had on that football team man
Speaker 1: second and none. I mean, I won't forget. I want
Speaker 1: to transfer. When I came back home, I think my
Speaker 1: sophomore year. I think my sophomore year. I want to transfer.
Speaker 1: I make my mom wanna transfer out here. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I want to go to I'm gonna get wirst. I
Speaker 1: called Oklahoma. I called University of Oklahoma Road rotary die
Speaker 1: phone Oklahoma football. Can I speak to Coach Switzer? Hold
Speaker 1: on a second. I want to get a secretary's name
Speaker 1: of Susie. The name of Susie, he said, Susie. Blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, because Switter secretary. Who's calling? I didn't say anything,
Speaker 1: So who's calling? I hung up. I see my way
Speaker 1: to get home with him. My mom, I want to transfer.
Speaker 1: So I go home and I said, my mom, I
Speaker 1: wanna talk to you, she said. She said yeah. At
Speaker 1: this to my dad had passed away. Say my mom
Speaker 1: wanna talk to you? I wanna. I don't want to
Speaker 1: go to see you anymore. She said, what I said,
Speaker 1: I want to go to OU. She said, boys, set
Speaker 1: your ass down. She took a piece of paper and
Speaker 1: put a line down in the mind to put sing
Speaker 1: you another It's okay, she said, So you have a
Speaker 1: scholarship at SMU. Yes, ma'am, I have a scholarship. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's a check. So you guarantee the scholarship with oh you, well,
Speaker 1: that's an x SO. So you're playing at SMU. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm playing. That's a check, so you guarantee you're gonna
Speaker 1: play it. Ou, that's an x so. Make a old
Speaker 1: story short. It was all checks on the SMU side
Speaker 1: and x is on o U side. And she said,
Speaker 1: we'll take your ass back to SMU. So I went back,
Speaker 1: and you know the rest this history the Pony Express
Speaker 1: and I'm glad. I'm glad I went back. I mean,
Speaker 1: your teams were incredible. I gotta ask you. You've come
Speaker 1: clean after a number of years about the car right
Speaker 1: now are the cars? Let me just now, let me
Speaker 1: just tell you this. When I went to s m U,
Speaker 1: there was a story. There was always a story. The
Speaker 1: story that I heard was you get the trans am
Speaker 1: from an I mean, and this is this is a
Speaker 1: number of years later. By the way, I'm way way
Speaker 1: younger and more handsome than I. So when I am there,
Speaker 1: the story I heard is you have that trans am
Speaker 1: and you drive it up to s I mean, this
Speaker 1: is how things get changed. You're at A and M.
Speaker 1: You drive the trans am up to s m U
Speaker 1: to visit s m U. They then offer you a Porsche,
Speaker 1: and so you get in your trans am and you
Speaker 1: drive it back to m M and somebody picks you
Speaker 1: up from SMU and the Porsche and drives you back
Speaker 1: to Dallas. Now that's where the st I know, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that's true. I know it's not true, but
Speaker 1: I'm saying that's what had happened to the story. That's
Speaker 1: where it happened. So I'm you know, I ended up
Speaker 1: going just a couple of years, a few years twenty
Speaker 1: years after the death medalty, No, just a few years
Speaker 1: after is when? Is when I ended up coming? And
Speaker 1: you know, really what I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: is for a long time you said your grandmother bought
Speaker 1: it for you and that that was your story, and
Speaker 1: you were sticking with that's the story. Let me tell
Speaker 1: the stories in this in my book. Yeah, well that's
Speaker 1: and that's why my my question really is why at
Speaker 1: this point of view, you decided to tell the fore
Speaker 1: man because who's going to hurt most? Everybody didn't gone, right?
Speaker 1: Is that why you you stuck with the story for
Speaker 1: so long, because you didn't want to hurt people because
Speaker 1: the story was It's true it's true. My grandmother did
Speaker 1: buy the car. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you had it
Speaker 1: went down. So the lady who raised me is my
Speaker 1: great great hunt. People that that's my grandmother, right, that's
Speaker 1: not my grandmother. My grandmother lived in Houston with my grandfather.
Speaker 1: Grandfather was a crane operated They had it. He had
Speaker 1: a really good job. He got a new car every
Speaker 1: couple of years, like every four years, they get a
Speaker 1: new Cadillac. That was that was. That was the thing.
Speaker 1: They said I wouldn't get another. So when I saw
Speaker 1: the car, you know, everybody my familynew, I liked to
Speaker 1: like this car, the trans trans The trans was that
Speaker 1: Leo Jonagan, Leo Jenagan chivallet as well. It was where
Speaker 1: it was at. And so I told my mother and
Speaker 1: I because I go to I drive down to Houston
Speaker 1: my mom's new car. We had old pick up. I
Speaker 1: drive to Houstons and visit my grandparents in Houston. Just
Speaker 1: spointed my house away, so they knew were here about
Speaker 1: the translator, and they heard about and m recruited me
Speaker 1: and all the schools recruited me. And so one day
Speaker 1: my mother said, we're gonna go to Houston. You want
Speaker 1: to go to Houston tomorrow. I'm going to that car.
Speaker 1: I'll know what car that that trans am Like really,
Speaker 1: I'm like okay. So we go down to Houston. We
Speaker 1: go to Leo Johnagan. My grandmother meets me there. My
Speaker 1: grandfather and my stepfather and my mother, my mom and
Speaker 1: two white men. I don't know who these white guys are.
Speaker 1: Still know who they are today. We go in again.
Speaker 1: Never saw him again. That was him again. Go go
Speaker 1: and go to Leo Johnagan talking about the car, talking
Speaker 1: to my grandmother. I take the car, drive it. They
Speaker 1: take me, take out and drive. They're doing all the talking.
Speaker 1: Come back, say the keys, it's yours. I'm like, like
Speaker 1: I would like that. That's how that's our trans That's
Speaker 1: how it went down, just like that. So I asked
Speaker 1: my mother. I said, Mama, say why do I get
Speaker 1: that car? She said, don't. Don't you worry about it,
Speaker 1: and it can't ever come back on you. Exactly what
Speaker 1: she said, They can't never come back on you. A
Speaker 1: couple of days later, N C. Devil A shows up
Speaker 1: at Selly High School in my school. A couple of
Speaker 1: days later, like like two days literally, like not a week,
Speaker 1: like two days later, they showed up in my high school.
Speaker 1: Everybody in here, and I had a new car. I'm
Speaker 1: in lab class and I got to the teacher comes, hey, Erica.
Speaker 1: Guys knocks on the door. I go out. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm so and so from n C double A, black guy,
Speaker 1: N double A. I want to talk to you about
Speaker 1: the trans am that you have. I said, well, I
Speaker 1: can't talk to you, so you can talk to my mother.
Speaker 1: I said, at home. I mean she's at home. I
Speaker 1: mean I don't know what to tell you. He said, well,
Speaker 1: can you give me your address? I call you my myself.
Speaker 1: So I had to go to the office, called my
Speaker 1: mother and tell him this guy gonna come to the
Speaker 1: house and talk to about the car. She said, good
Speaker 1: to him, come on to the house. So he goes
Speaker 1: to my house. I get home later and he was
Speaker 1: still there, and they talked to my grandmother talked to
Speaker 1: him on the phone. To make a long story short,
Speaker 1: this man came to our house every day four I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say almost two months. Even on the weekends he
Speaker 1: would come. That's how much she came. Talking to my grandparents,
Speaker 1: talking my stepfather the time, my mom talking to my grandmother.
Speaker 1: My mama, you know what he was talking to neighbors
Speaker 1: and everything else. And finally I didn't see him anymore.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was saying so much he's something he was.
Speaker 1: He would eat dinner with us sometimes, that's how much
Speaker 1: he was at our house. I was, I can remember
Speaker 1: that man's name. So finally, I said, Mama said, what
Speaker 1: happened to that double A guy? She said, well, your
Speaker 1: grandmother told him that if she see him again, she's
Speaker 1: gonna suit him personally. And the n C double a
Speaker 1: she said, they an't got nothing on that car. She said,
Speaker 1: nothing on it. She said, she bought that car legally.
Speaker 1: There's nothing they could do. So boom, let's fast forward.
Speaker 1: So come to find out, because my mother would never
Speaker 1: tell me. She never told me, so I think I
Speaker 1: was in the pros. I said. Mama said, I said, car,
Speaker 1: come about? She said, you didn't have She said, you
Speaker 1: need you do need to know, but I'll tell you now.
Speaker 1: She said, actually, your grandmother bought that car, she said,
Speaker 1: everyone a check for it. She said, paid four hundred
Speaker 1: offs for that car, she said, and m gave the
Speaker 1: cash back for it. That's how the car was bought.
Speaker 1: Boom trans and my grandmother bought the car. I didn't know,
Speaker 1: so it is so for a long time you still didn't.
Speaker 1: You didn't know, Answering honestly, said Answering. Honestly, I did
Speaker 1: not know. I did. I had no idea because she
Speaker 1: didn't tell me. I mean but really, and she she
Speaker 1: bought the car, didn't give it the money back. So
Speaker 1: that's it. But the car from smel you know which one.
Speaker 1: What's your what's your telling good Man? Good Man? Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that was that was the story. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you the points. Craig had a post. I didn't have
Speaker 1: a post. See, people don't know Craig at the nine
Speaker 1: forty four post. Cig got a nine forty four Craig Jane. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean every everybody had cars. That was the new.
Speaker 1: Everybody had a car. I mean, you know the great
Speaker 1: thing about I can say estime with the guys, it
Speaker 1: was no jealousy. Every guy was happy for a guy.
Speaker 1: Many let me see a car. Man, did me drive?
Speaker 1: You know? Let me let me see it. Almost every
Speaker 1: guy had a car, so that's good. Everybody had a
Speaker 1: carr Um the Pony Express legendary Pony Express of the
Speaker 1: early eighties. You Craig James Charles Wagoner, all three great recruits.
Speaker 1: Charles gets hurt and it's you, You and Craig the
Speaker 1: Pony Express. You still feel love for those days memories
Speaker 1: for sure. I'll say this many speaking of speaking to
Speaker 1: Charles Wagner, it was it was three. We had so
Speaker 1: many backs. I mean, it went just those three. It
Speaker 1: was me, it was Craig, it was Charles Wagner, it
Speaker 1: was Idio Brian, it was man. We had like were
Speaker 1: deeply back from Lynch, Charles Drayden, Craig Jane. I mean
Speaker 1: we had like nine ten running backs, you know, all
Speaker 1: highly recruited running backs. And Charles Wagner to me, I
Speaker 1: gotta say it was I think he was. He was
Speaker 1: by my size. Charles was about six ft two, six
Speaker 1: ft three one as fast as I was. But I
Speaker 1: think he was ready for college at the time that
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I gotta say. He means his body structure
Speaker 1: was bigger. He was bigger. But he got hurt on
Speaker 1: a kickoff on playing the Texas Tech Red Reds, broke
Speaker 1: a Bonies neck and never played again. We were back
Speaker 1: down the back. We were back on the kickoff together.
Speaker 1: No one forget it. It kicked off and it could
Speaker 1: have been me just as easy it was him. I
Speaker 1: stepped up bout to have you take it, and they
Speaker 1: cut back time. They could cut you, cut you that
Speaker 1: your need, it cut me and cut him at the
Speaker 1: same time. He came down and broke a Bonies neck.
Speaker 1: He never played again. But Charles was man, there's no
Speaker 1: way that all three of us could have stayed there.
Speaker 1: Somebody's going have to leave, you know, That's what That's
Speaker 1: what it. It was not enough football as it just wasn't.
Speaker 1: It was just facts. But and I hate to see
Speaker 1: somebody get hurt, especially Charles. Charles is such a good guy.
Speaker 1: But that's how, you know, the Pony Express kind of
Speaker 1: came to that. But it wasn't It wasn't smooth transition.
Speaker 1: It wasn't smooth. I mean it really wasn't. Because Craig
Speaker 1: didn't like sharing time. I didn't like sharing time. Then
Speaker 1: after a while we just kind of got used to it.
Speaker 1: You know, it would be where like most of the time,
Speaker 1: Craig would start and then I would come in off
Speaker 1: the bench, and you know, we're just rotating. And you know,
Speaker 1: we did like if you got a serious, if if
Speaker 1: we had a drolane drive. Then that was your serious.
Speaker 1: If it was three and some time, I say, you
Speaker 1: go back in. You know, we just we just made
Speaker 1: it work and and it and it worked, it worked
Speaker 1: really well. Yeah. So there is Oklahoma, there's Texas to
Speaker 1: some degree, A and M at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: was there any particular joy or good feeling that you
Speaker 1: had sort of elevating a school that had not been
Speaker 1: on that level, like you were blazing a new path.
Speaker 1: That's what my mom saying. I'm gonna tell you, man,
Speaker 1: She's mother was so smart. I'm smart like your mom.
Speaker 1: But anyway, go ahead, so smart, Yeah, she said, She's said,
Speaker 1: let me tell you some son, she said, go somewhere
Speaker 1: where you can be the first you can start. Say
Speaker 1: you go to these schools. Oklahoma they got their guy.
Speaker 1: You go to USC they got their guy. Go somewhere.
Speaker 1: They'll be talking about you off forever. Yes. And honestly, Brian,
Speaker 1: here we are not to talk about it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I wish you'd talk about stuff. Yeah, I gotta I
Speaker 1: gotta give her. I gotta give her credit on that.
Speaker 1: That's credit to her. And she was right. And that's
Speaker 1: why I said, I'm so glad that I chose my school. Well, look,
Speaker 1: and we're about to talk about the NFL as well,
Speaker 1: and obviously it's about your college career. But I think
Speaker 1: you're right if you go to oh you we'd mentioned
Speaker 1: maybe a national championship or you know, this record that
Speaker 1: you had or whatever. But it's really nice to hear
Speaker 1: your feelings about the school because you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: when I was there, and I know still now they're
Speaker 1: still talking about you. They still talk about it like
Speaker 1: like it happened yesterday. And it's funny because I mean
Speaker 1: it's been so long ago. But we had such a
Speaker 1: great program. I mean, we would dominant. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know the thing about it is when I when I
Speaker 1: when they did thirty for thirty and guys that put
Speaker 1: younger than me play man Man. I didn't know y'all
Speaker 1: were that good man Man. I wanted to go to
Speaker 1: smutwo Man. I got to death pelling I was trying
Speaker 1: to go to SMU. It was so many of those,
Speaker 1: so many of those players as that said that. But
Speaker 1: we would trail blazes and didn't even know it, basically
Speaker 1: because people I didn't know. People knew who the Ponies
Speaker 1: Press was. I didn't know people even knew when I
Speaker 1: came to California. But you know, one of my things was,
Speaker 1: I said, I want them to know who I am.
Speaker 1: I want them I want to know what a good
Speaker 1: football player I really am, because I don't think they
Speaker 1: really know. You know, me and Texas, you know, because
Speaker 1: we didn't get the height that I don't think like
Speaker 1: Alabama and SC and all the other schools guys. But
Speaker 1: I guess we were getting them. We just didn't realize
Speaker 1: were playing on national television too. Yeah. Yeah, no, it
Speaker 1: was a real thing. And you know the crazy thing is,
Speaker 1: I don't think you and I have ever talked about this.
Speaker 1: Maybe we did. I mean I end up going to
Speaker 1: s m U totally, you know, for for other reasons.
Speaker 1: But I'm from Atlanta. I was a University of Georgia fan.
Speaker 1: So well S had the theater department, I mean sm
Speaker 1: you you know, they had, as we know, both of
Speaker 1: us know, they have a lot of money, and they
Speaker 1: supported their athletics and they supported the arts and and
Speaker 1: so that's where I went. But no, so but at
Speaker 1: that time, again, because I'm younger and more attractive, I was,
Speaker 1: I was, Yeah, I was going to Athens as a
Speaker 1: as a kid, as a younger kid. Yeah, watching herschel Walker,
Speaker 1: and so I was, it's this weird kind of shift
Speaker 1: for me where I remember me. It was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know if we want to play I don't
Speaker 1: know if we want to play s MU or not
Speaker 1: we being Georgia, which then sort of shifted and changed.
Speaker 1: It's just interesting. Uh, fifty yards on seven ninety carries.
Speaker 1: You broke Earl Campbell's Southwest Conference record for yards and
Speaker 1: for attempts. Forty eight career touchdowns, tied dog Walkers SMU
Speaker 1: record career scoring record, and this was despite splitting time.
Speaker 1: You finished third in the Heisman Trophy, voting behind aforementioned
Speaker 1: herschel Walker and John Elway. Obviously, you're getting a ton
Speaker 1: of attention at this time for the NFL, and I
Speaker 1: understand that you were. I did not know this or
Speaker 1: did not remember this. You considered going to the Arizona
Speaker 1: Wranglers usfl um and and and was considering between that
Speaker 1: and the NFL. And once again my mother came through.
Speaker 1: I won't forget because I asked us which one should
Speaker 1: I go to? Mom? She so, and so let me
Speaker 1: think about it, let me praise the other thing. Let
Speaker 1: me pray on it, and I won't. I guess. She
Speaker 1: came back later a couple of days. They just let
Speaker 1: me ask you something, Say which one has been around longer?
Speaker 1: I said in n f ALF. She said, go to
Speaker 1: the NFL. They're gonna be there. That's the one you
Speaker 1: go to. That's why I chose the NFL. I don't
Speaker 1: even think about the Arizona Wranglers after that they drafted it,
Speaker 1: but I never I went on the visit, you know,
Speaker 1: to take by me down to visit, but I wouldn't
Speaker 1: go in there. I was going to the NFL. And
Speaker 1: she said that that's seal the deal for me. I
Speaker 1: mean that is a really good decision. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: just call me crazy. I think that's a really good decision. Uh.
Speaker 1: You get drafted by the Rams. Talk to me about
Speaker 1: that day, just a little bit about being drafted and
Speaker 1: by the Rams again far away from home. What were
Speaker 1: your feelings. Well, I'll say this much here. I want
Speaker 1: to come to the Rams. I did after not coming
Speaker 1: to USC, you know, watching the Rams on television, because
Speaker 1: I'd watched the Rams. I really you know what I
Speaker 1: loved about the uniforms. I love the uniforms. I loved
Speaker 1: the old uniform. I love the horn. I mean it
Speaker 1: just sucks. Looks so cool, and I make me I
Speaker 1: look so good in the uniform being in l I
Speaker 1: think I've been in l a Hollywood. You know when
Speaker 1: I when I got drafted, I was excited about it.
Speaker 1: But I got I got the news, Uh, the night
Speaker 1: before you knew I was gonna go. It was it
Speaker 1: was it was Baltimore, the Oilers and the Rams in
Speaker 1: that order. That was the That was the order right there, first,
Speaker 1: top three. So it possed me. I said, I was
Speaker 1: gonna go one, two or three somewhere, and you know,
Speaker 1: we know what we're in there, something one or two,
Speaker 1: one or two or three maybe. So what happened is
Speaker 1: the Rams made a trade with the Oilers the night
Speaker 1: before the draft, and I got a call that night.
Speaker 1: I can't think it again as a guy's name that
Speaker 1: he called me said, um, god, this is someone So
Speaker 1: from the last Angeles Rams is Eric Dickerson. I said this.
Speaker 1: Eric Dickerson said, We're gonna draft you in the morning.
Speaker 1: He said, So, I have a flight for you to
Speaker 1: catch it, like ten o'clock out of Dallas df W.
Speaker 1: So just let you know we're draft you in the morning.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I won't forget it. And that's not
Speaker 1: another drafts. I knew right there. They said, you said
Speaker 1: we made a trade with the Houston Oiler. We swapp
Speaker 1: with the Houston Oilers. So I'm just letting you know
Speaker 1: because Houston was head a second pick. So shoot enough,
Speaker 1: I'm in the car. I'm go away today. Up put
Speaker 1: me my best friend, Jack Bogman. That's what called Jack.
Speaker 1: Following the call, We're on our way. They are pulled.
Speaker 1: I said, the RAMS make a quick pick, you know,
Speaker 1: running back Eric Dickinson, Southern Methish University, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: And they were like, wow, that was really quick, you know,
Speaker 1: because they picked me right away, you know, just like
Speaker 1: they picked John. That would the same way. So um.
Speaker 1: I got to the airport and people who congratulate me,
Speaker 1: and I was like, wow, thanks, you know, and I
Speaker 1: got to l A. I got here to l A,
Speaker 1: to the Rams and had the press conference. For the
Speaker 1: first thing John Robinson said when he saw me, said,
Speaker 1: I finally got you because he tried to recruit me
Speaker 1: out of highs spool recruit me out of house. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that was that was that was funny. And I
Speaker 1: won't forget my press conference because you know, they asked me,
Speaker 1: you know, questions, and you know, I've never been big,
Speaker 1: I've never cared for the press much. And one of
Speaker 1: the things was and I was I going to be
Speaker 1: the savior. I said, hey, man, look, I said, I
Speaker 1: just came in to play football and just do what
Speaker 1: I supposed to do. Do my job. That's what that's
Speaker 1: that's that's what I'm gonna do. And I was excited
Speaker 1: about it. But I can tell you this when I
Speaker 1: got back, because I flew back that night, got back, um,
Speaker 1: so my best friend picked me up. He said, man, so,
Speaker 1: so what what number did you choose? I said, I chose.
Speaker 1: I chose number twenty five. He's say, twenty five. Why
Speaker 1: do you take that slow number? That SA a slow
Speaker 1: ass number. I never forget it, he said, why do
Speaker 1: you take number twenty nine? Like you know, nineteen to
Speaker 1: right num? I'm like, oh yeah, man, Brandon. That night
Speaker 1: I couldn't even sleep. I couldn't. I couldn't even I
Speaker 1: couldn't even sleep. I sweat I could. I had to
Speaker 1: call the rams. The next changed my number, so I
Speaker 1: called later in the day, said and I said, I
Speaker 1: speak to them, Mr Hewitt, please to equipment guy. So okay,
Speaker 1: but I said, Mr, what how you're doing? Say Eric
Speaker 1: is going? I say, and I know I'm I'm number
Speaker 1: twenty five, but I don't want to be number twenty five.
Speaker 1: I said, I want to be I wanna switch my
Speaker 1: number twenty nine, he said, Eric. He said, I don't
Speaker 1: think men do that. You know you're in l A times.
Speaker 1: Hold up number twenty five. I said, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what to Hewitt. If I'm not number twenty nine, I'm
Speaker 1: not coming. He said, okay, will you be number twenty nine.
Speaker 1: So that's how I came up in twenty nine. I
Speaker 1: did not know that story. And it leads me to
Speaker 1: a really important question. Do you like most athletes? For
Speaker 1: those of you who are not golfers, most professional athletes
Speaker 1: put their their number on their golf ball. Is twenty
Speaker 1: nine on your golf ball? Yeah? Most of them. I hate.
Speaker 1: I hate to lose them. That's the problem. You're losing
Speaker 1: at your number. E D two nine, E D H.
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. People give them him. Here's the problem.
Speaker 1: I'm twenty nine. Also, this never occurred to me, probably
Speaker 1: when we've played at some point in time you've hit
Speaker 1: my ball, you're like number twenty nine. All right, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you. I was like, I'm not an you know,
Speaker 1: because you know, you go to Tahoe or you go
Speaker 1: in these turns and you gotta have your own number.
Speaker 1: You gotta you know, it's gotta be different. And I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't have a number. What am I
Speaker 1: gonna say? And so I was like, well, let me
Speaker 1: think of something weird, which was not I was nineteen.
Speaker 1: I was like, it's a it's a prime number. Like
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like I don't I don't think of
Speaker 1: any You'll probably think of somebody. I can't think of
Speaker 1: any iconic sports people that have had nineteen. And then
Speaker 1: I started playing real shitty for a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I think I I think I
Speaker 1: gotta change my number. So I totally randomly, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just turn into twenty nine. And that was it.
Speaker 1: So I'm yeah, I'm nine when I was nineteen in college,
Speaker 1: but that's what I had. I was nineteen. There you go,
Speaker 1: Maybe that was it. Maybe that was up following you
Speaker 1: from college to the pro. Well, I gotta tell you
Speaker 1: to see it too. I could tell you a story
Speaker 1: because people ask me, they say, you know, what's what's
Speaker 1: if you have a regret? Was one thing you regret?
Speaker 1: I see? You know what I really regret. I regret
Speaker 1: not taking theater and drama. I used to love to
Speaker 1: go to s m U or both s m U
Speaker 1: and in high school. But you know, back then it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, I'm not a drama guy. That's
Speaker 1: that's the real guys. Don't mean if I at least
Speaker 1: don't do that kind of stuff. But do I regret
Speaker 1: that to death? Man? Because I used to love to
Speaker 1: go to play, Like man, that's so cool. They become
Speaker 1: somebody else, that's amazing. I never knew that. Let me
Speaker 1: ask you this. Do you remember what was your dorm
Speaker 1: at s m U. Uh see it was in cock
Speaker 1: when what Cockroll was the other one? Um? Was it
Speaker 1: Letterman Hall? No, not Letterman I wouldn't. I wouldn't let him.
Speaker 1: But I moved off Campa. I moved off campus out
Speaker 1: to my freshman year. Yeah me too, that's kind of
Speaker 1: what everybody did. Yeah. No, so I was told Letterman
Speaker 1: Hall was the old football dorm, which it might have
Speaker 1: been for I got there. But became the became the theater.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, so that's where that was my that was
Speaker 1: my freshman dorm. Okay, yeah, yeah, that dor m I
Speaker 1: believe no longer exists because the President Bush's Library. But
Speaker 1: for those of you who went to school then, who
Speaker 1: are listening, that gorgeous just there. It's amazing you. You
Speaker 1: go to the Rams. It must be stated you set
Speaker 1: the single season rushing yardage record in a season still
Speaker 1: stands today, two thousand, one hundred and five yards um.
Speaker 1: Before you, only O. J. Simpson had more, just a
Speaker 1: handful after no one has gotten? Is that Is that
Speaker 1: something you're proud of, very much, very much proud of.
Speaker 1: I think I think the one that I always say
Speaker 1: is gonna last longer is the rookie Russian records is
Speaker 1: a rookie of twenty touchdowns. I mean, I didn't plan
Speaker 1: on that kind of season. I mean I forget once again,
Speaker 1: me and my best friend and we're talking about my
Speaker 1: first my first year. He said, we don't know what
Speaker 1: because it kind of trying to make goals. So he said, well,
Speaker 1: he said, okay, but let's look at Marcus because he said,
Speaker 1: I think Marcus had, like he said, level hundred yards
Speaker 1: and like eight touchdowns. So he said, well, you bet
Speaker 1: at Marcus, so he said, and Marcus, my boy, she said.
Speaker 1: He said so. Now he said, so you ought to
Speaker 1: have like thirteen hundred yards here, like thirteen or fourteen
Speaker 1: touchdown like can that be a good years? But I
Speaker 1: had eighteen hundred yards and touchdown. So but man, I'm
Speaker 1: very proud of you. Know, when you play a sport
Speaker 1: like like football, in any sport, it's grueling, it's it's
Speaker 1: a grueling sport. It's it's tough on your body, is
Speaker 1: tough on your mind. But I think the thing that
Speaker 1: that sometimes it's satisfying is when you play against other
Speaker 1: great players and they tell you that you're great or
Speaker 1: you're good. Man, Erek, you're great. I mean I was
Speaker 1: tough playing against you. That makes you feel like I
Speaker 1: really did something, I really accomplished something in my sport.
Speaker 1: When the other great players, because you're him, like my
Speaker 1: boy lt Or Ricky Jackson, Richard Dent, I say, man,
Speaker 1: you're playing against you. Man, we knew we had to
Speaker 1: game plan for you and vice versa, like we had
Speaker 1: the game playing for Lawrence Tablor with the lame playing
Speaker 1: for Richard Dent, you know my singletary, you know Ranny Lott,
Speaker 1: you know, you get the game plan for certain guys.
Speaker 1: But it makes me I'm very proud of the things
Speaker 1: that I was able to do in the NFL. I
Speaker 1: want you to know, because I know I haven't said
Speaker 1: this to you. It has become truly for me, one
Speaker 1: of the great thrills privileges of my life as a
Speaker 1: huge sports fan, to truly get to know essentially everyone
Speaker 1: you just mentioned. I mean, you're talking about Marcus and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I remember, yeah, me and you and
Speaker 1: Marcus and fly there there, Oh there's dead and you know,
Speaker 1: watching you guys interact and bringing me into that fold
Speaker 1: in some way or I don't know, trusting me is
Speaker 1: I don't even know if that's the right word or
Speaker 1: just we're just hanging out. It's a I consider it
Speaker 1: a privilege. So I just wanted to say that. And
Speaker 1: when you mentioned all those other guys, I'm like, yeah, God,
Speaker 1: and everyone's nice to me, like, well believe believe it,
Speaker 1: or that you know, all of guys, all of us,
Speaker 1: I think athletes, we all was insensible to be an
Speaker 1: actor too, right, So we look, we look at what
Speaker 1: you're doing like man, we had all that awsome Like, man,
Speaker 1: how do you do that? You know, make it look
Speaker 1: so easy? Like people say you're making it look a man.
Speaker 1: I say, it isn't easy, just like acting. It's not easy.
Speaker 1: It's a job. No, No, it's not. No. And this
Speaker 1: week especially I can tell you fresh sure it is.
Speaker 1: It is not not this my it's it is. It's
Speaker 1: been a tough week. Um. The Rams you left, which
Speaker 1: we can talk about briefly to go to the Colts
Speaker 1: eventually the Raiders and you know you had and on again,
Speaker 1: off again, you know, relationship with some people with the Rams,
Speaker 1: and you know, to see you the last few years.
Speaker 1: How has it been for you to really be brought back. Well,
Speaker 1: I gotta say it was good because he started with
Speaker 1: john Shaw and john Shaw was the guy who who
Speaker 1: traded me from the Rams, and that that should have
Speaker 1: never happened. Look, one thing about me was I wasn't
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have trouble maker. You know, I didn't do drugs.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm like most guys young keys back then.
Speaker 1: All it did was go out to go to club
Speaker 1: and chase girls. Thank thank god, wouldn't have cell phones.
Speaker 1: But like that, Thank God wouldn't have these things. But
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to play for I want to
Speaker 1: play for the team, but you know they weren't paying
Speaker 1: me right, and they really weren't. I mean, And you know,
Speaker 1: I got called all kinds of things, Eric, the Ingrade,
Speaker 1: things I ain't know. I ain't know, the Ingrade Wolds,
Speaker 1: you know, money hungry. I'm like money, Hu, God, my money.
Speaker 1: I ain't making no money, you know, Because so I
Speaker 1: won't forget that. It was my fourth year and I
Speaker 1: go to meet with john Shaw by my contract, but
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just so unhappy with it because I
Speaker 1: know I'm getting screwed. I mean, it's no doubt I am.
Speaker 1: I mean, And so when I go to talk to
Speaker 1: him about it, he says, I mean, he says, So Eric,
Speaker 1: we know, what do you want you to? Said one
Speaker 1: time of my contract, John, I mean said, man, I'm
Speaker 1: say I'm not getting paid right, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm most of the offense, and you know I'm I
Speaker 1: left the league in Russian last year. And I won't
Speaker 1: forget his reply, No, you didn't, Eric want to Payton, did?
Speaker 1: I said? John? I left the league in Russian last year?
Speaker 1: Eric I mean, so we argue. I'm like, jump, I
Speaker 1: left the league in Russian. Now I'm telling you at
Speaker 1: fourteen touchdown, let me get the book out. I want
Speaker 1: to slap him with that book. You can bring the book.
Speaker 1: You like. Oh, I'm like, you know, I want to say,
Speaker 1: you know I did so you know. So I'm talking
Speaker 1: to him and I said, John, I said, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what this is how much I wanted to stay
Speaker 1: with the team. And I guarantee no other player would
Speaker 1: have did this. I said, I think I did a
Speaker 1: year I had like thirteen hundred yards because I held out.
Speaker 1: So I told my said, look, John, I said, if
Speaker 1: if I have over fifteen to sixteen hundred yards, that's
Speaker 1: a lot of yards. And the NFL, that's a lot
Speaker 1: of yards. I said, you pay me like Johnny always
Speaker 1: getting paid. Paid me a million dollars. I was making
Speaker 1: one fifty one seventy five. And I mean that Johnny
Speaker 1: always making a million dollars. I'm like, I'm a second pick.
Speaker 1: How's my money so off? So he said, I said,
Speaker 1: I said, just I said, just pay me, pay me.
Speaker 1: I want to make all day. I want to make
Speaker 1: a million dollars. That's what I want to make He said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that. I said, I put it
Speaker 1: on me, and I'm just like that if I don't perform,
Speaker 1: I don't say I'll go back to the old contract.
Speaker 1: And said, no, I'm not gonna do that. And then
Speaker 1: at that point, I'm like, well it's't gonna work, right,
Speaker 1: you know, just and just it just st fall on
Speaker 1: the part at that point. You know, it's a team,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be there. And you know, my
Speaker 1: last football game that I played for the Rams and
Speaker 1: one forget it was to Cleveland Browns and played in
Speaker 1: Cleveland and I had a hurt thigh. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to play, but I played. I told him I didn't
Speaker 1: want to start, and so I said because my thy heart.
Speaker 1: I was so pissed at him. And so Charlie White
Speaker 1: got hurt one again. He got hurt on a play
Speaker 1: and I had to go in the game. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what my helmet was to play the game. Find
Speaker 1: my helmet, Run on the field, Run on the field,
Speaker 1: run on the field. And the first playoff they they
Speaker 1: called in the backfield and all the crowd went crazy
Speaker 1: and they were threw a little short passed the next place,
Speaker 1: I had a like a fifty yard touchdown run and
Speaker 1: that was my last run for the Rams. I said,
Speaker 1: I said, I'm done with this crap. I said, Man,
Speaker 1: I hate this team and I loved him. Man, I
Speaker 1: just I love my teammates. I just couldn't stand the organization. Man,
Speaker 1: it really it was. It was really bad. But let's
Speaker 1: pass forward. So now I'm retired. Kevin touched Jackie's later
Speaker 1: a lot. So Jackie comes to ericson. Man, john Shaw
Speaker 1: wants to want you to call him. I said, call
Speaker 1: him for what he messed up with me. Man, he said,
Speaker 1: I said no, I said, I don't want to do
Speaker 1: with him. He's Eric. He said, he always like you
Speaker 1: said you stand up. Guys say, hey, we have him
Speaker 1: called me, so shoot enough. John called me. He called
Speaker 1: me and he has been having lunch with him. Someone
Speaker 1: had lunch with him and I don't forget the first
Speaker 1: thing he said this Eric, Guys want to say this
Speaker 1: to you. He says that trade should have never happened.
Speaker 1: He said, that's my fault. He said you. He said,
Speaker 1: you're the greatest player I've ever seen. He said, used
Speaker 1: to be saying that you would be a Ram to
Speaker 1: me for life. So if anything we can ever do
Speaker 1: for you, he said, you just call and let me know.
Speaker 1: And from that point on, you know, for me, I
Speaker 1: was because I mean, I never want to leave the team.
Speaker 1: I really didn't, but you know, it was just it was,
Speaker 1: like I said, it was business and it was ugly business.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm I'm I work for the team. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to be back with the Los Angeles Rams.
Speaker 1: I'm going to see my team win. I want to
Speaker 1: see my team in the super Bowl here in l A.
Speaker 1: I think it was fantastic. I mean, and we still
Speaker 1: have a long way to go. We really do with
Speaker 1: the fans because you know, just be honest, it's a
Speaker 1: Raider town. And I said, it's a raider twn's cowboy
Speaker 1: town nine as I hate the nine as god cast. Okay,
Speaker 1: stand up. I have to ask you this greatest defense
Speaker 1: you ever played against. You talked about people giving you compliments.
Speaker 1: You're gonna tell you something people you're gonna thank us
Speaker 1: that you're gonna thank us to. It's not to Chicago Bettars. No,
Speaker 1: the great defense. Don't get me wrong, great defense, but
Speaker 1: the defense that gave me the most problems the New
Speaker 1: England Patriots, and they weren't even make good. Man, just
Speaker 1: give me fits. I'm serious fits. I mean, I played it.
Speaker 1: I always played well against the Bears. I mean even
Speaker 1: like at the Indian offices. I played only one game
Speaker 1: that we're gonna play well. We played that NFCY Championship
Speaker 1: game and we didn't have a quarterback. He did for
Speaker 1: fifty yards. I think I ran for fifty yards, but
Speaker 1: that that was a great defense. But they've ran that
Speaker 1: defense before. I got that monster defense, and we always
Speaker 1: ran against it. I had a hundred forty fifty. They
Speaker 1: were good. But the two defense that gave me the
Speaker 1: most hell was the New England Patriots. Man, they would
Speaker 1: hit me well, I seem I didn't have a pad or.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm like, and I would ask them like,
Speaker 1: I said, man, why is it that the week before,
Speaker 1: two weeks before, y'all give up two hundred yards Russian
Speaker 1: one ninety. Get to me, it's a tough hundred. It's
Speaker 1: a tough ninety yards. He said, it's called Dickerson Week.
Speaker 1: He said, we got ready for you. Eric. Really you
Speaker 1: say you say you say we called it Dickerson week.
Speaker 1: He said, We're ready for you. I'm like, y'all show
Speaker 1: were man because when I tell you, oh I hated
Speaker 1: playing them, Yeah, I hated it. Yeah. You called your
Speaker 1: time with the Colts unfortunate, and you've sort of spoken
Speaker 1: to it that you didn't ever want to leave nol A. No,
Speaker 1: I want to leave LA. You know, Indianapolis was it
Speaker 1: is what it is. I didn't want to go to India.
Speaker 1: I mean the reason I went there was plus of
Speaker 1: my head coach Ron Meyer. And uh I finally got paid, right,
Speaker 1: you know you got paid? Oh, I got that here
Speaker 1: at home. I don't even took less money stay in
Speaker 1: l A. And look, I'm gonna say this much year.
Speaker 1: There's some good people in Indianapolis, and it's some bad people.
Speaker 1: And that's everywhere. That's that's all over the world. But
Speaker 1: I run across a lot of bad people and some
Speaker 1: good people to like, you know, my wife's from Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: You know, my my my in laws. Man, I love
Speaker 1: my mother in law, my father love. They're good people.
Speaker 1: But you know, being in Indie, uh, it was some
Speaker 1: things that I've seen I've never seen, Like I've never
Speaker 1: seen a clan rally. I mean I saw a clan
Speaker 1: rally on TV. I mean you that on't forget my
Speaker 1: uncle here. I'm a land in bed on a Tuesday
Speaker 1: with your off day. You see what you do when
Speaker 1: I sitting there in the bed, he said, turned TV on?
Speaker 1: I said, what you see any channel? I turned it on.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell? He said, Yeah, he say,
Speaker 1: that's one that you know yet, Eric, he said, this
Speaker 1: is what it is like. It's over here, they claimed
Speaker 1: at downtime. I read it a big one. I ain't
Speaker 1: talking about like a couple a hundred people. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about a big clan rally. I've never seen anything like
Speaker 1: that before. And then I think the thing that really
Speaker 1: put me over the top of what that place was
Speaker 1: is that as a player, they hung a banner. Not
Speaker 1: forget they hung a banner over the rail, a picture
Speaker 1: of a black baby sitting in like the Indian style
Speaker 1: position with twenty nine with fried chicken on one side,
Speaker 1: stack of money, watermelons eating fried chicken, hanging out on
Speaker 1: the on the banner with my number on it. I
Speaker 1: won't forget this. My girl I was dating, she was
Speaker 1: at the game and we're best friend. We she's my
Speaker 1: best friend and she she she was crying after the game.
Speaker 1: I stopped. She camp obvious, she said, she said that
Speaker 1: was so hurtful. She said that was so wrong here.
Speaker 1: She said, I can't really let that stay out there.
Speaker 1: And I never forgot that, and I just can't. I mean, it's,
Speaker 1: you know, certain things you can't get past. Just like
Speaker 1: when I heard when I when I heard my old
Speaker 1: coach's voice. When I think about that situation of how
Speaker 1: the team that that go on, you don't do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you just's certain things you don't do. I mean,
Speaker 1: and to me, that was disrespectful. I think it was.
Speaker 1: It was uncalled for me, and that was just and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I gotta get the hell out of here.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just that's why I don't go back
Speaker 1: to Indian appis like and when we promoting my book,
Speaker 1: they asked me about we want to go to India.
Speaker 1: I said it in no way. I said, I'm not
Speaker 1: going back there. I don't like going to that place.
Speaker 1: I mean, and like I said, this good city for
Speaker 1: certain people, but for me, no, I'm not going back there.
Speaker 1: I don't blame you. I don't blame you. And like
Speaker 1: I said, and I'll say it again, some good people
Speaker 1: in every person is not like that. That's like saying,
Speaker 1: you know, every parents a good parent. It's not true, right, No, No,
Speaker 1: things would be decidedly different if that were true. Um,
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, you signed a one day contract with
Speaker 1: the Rams so you could retire as a member of
Speaker 1: the Rams. This is eighteen years after you're inducted into
Speaker 1: the NFL Hall of Fame. That's special. I wonder for you,
Speaker 1: with all of the players that you played with, that
Speaker 1: you became friends with, that you played for and against,
Speaker 1: what did the Hall of Fame mean for you? Well?
Speaker 1: I think for me. You know, I didn't even know
Speaker 1: what the Hall of Fame was until somebody when you
Speaker 1: when I was playing. Yeah, so I had Rickey Jackson
Speaker 1: was one who told me what it was. Anyway, I
Speaker 1: wanted to get go into that story. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: it in a sense solidifies your play as a player.
Speaker 1: You may think you're a good player, a great player,
Speaker 1: but when you have other people stamp you is he
Speaker 1: was one of the best. That's that's that's what that's
Speaker 1: really what it does. I mean, And it's politics. And
Speaker 1: let me just tell you that because I won't forget
Speaker 1: it was a guy that told me it was. It
Speaker 1: was a writer and he's a sportswriter. He's a writer
Speaker 1: for the for the Hall. One of the voters, and
Speaker 1: he's Erica said, I just want to take you. Said
Speaker 1: you were going to be unanimous choice. He said, but
Speaker 1: one guy wouldn't vote for you. I won't say who,
Speaker 1: said I'm big. He said, wouldn't vot because you see
Speaker 1: it because one reason. And I asked him, I said,
Speaker 1: what he said, because he held out? He said, what
Speaker 1: they got to do with football? He said, I can't
Speaker 1: about for a got it held out. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: they gotta do with football? What they got to do
Speaker 1: with football? Yeah, but that that's that's what it means
Speaker 1: for me. But it really does. That's awesome. The new book.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen there. I mean, there's truly so many
Speaker 1: stories that I've heard today that are incredible. There are
Speaker 1: even more in the book Watch My Smoke. The Eric
Speaker 1: Dickerson's story came out a little bit earlier this year.
Speaker 1: Eric tells the story about his groundbreaking career and attempts
Speaker 1: to right to kind of redefine your career and how
Speaker 1: people talk about you. Right, Yeah, Well, you know what
Speaker 1: the thing is especially back then. You know, we had
Speaker 1: no outlet, we had no social media. What the media
Speaker 1: wrote about us, people believed became factor. It was fact,
Speaker 1: and it was a lot of it wasn't true. I mean,
Speaker 1: they would make a guy that's truly an ass some
Speaker 1: guys he was. He was an asshole. Oh and then
Speaker 1: the media make him a great guy. He's not no
Speaker 1: great guy. We hated him. He's hated that. But that's
Speaker 1: just how it was back in and you know, and
Speaker 1: they vilified me because I just I wanted to get paid, right,
Speaker 1: That's all it was. And I wasn't. It was like
Speaker 1: I was asking for ten million dollars. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: paid what I thought was correct. Man. That was that
Speaker 1: was you know, back in them days. It was just
Speaker 1: it was a bad thing and they made you pay
Speaker 1: for it, and the media made me pay for it.
Speaker 1: But still, you know what, you know what I'm proud of.
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of that I did. I stood up.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of young players that came to
Speaker 1: me and after, you know, they just saw the thirty
Speaker 1: for thirty they read my book and said, man, I
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you. Man, he said, thank
Speaker 1: you for standing up for us for the for the
Speaker 1: running back position, and thanks you did, and I didn't.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't realize that what you're doing. I
Speaker 1: just did it because I know what was right, not
Speaker 1: because you said you greedy. I know. I know the
Speaker 1: difference between the difference between right and wrong, and it's
Speaker 1: it's wrong. And that's what I was doing it for
Speaker 1: for other players that I kept out. And they told
Speaker 1: some of the players and I was drains and saying, man,
Speaker 1: they keep me underpaid, they keep everybody underpaide, I said,
Speaker 1: I said, it's just wrong when they treat us. You're
Speaker 1: taking a pounding. You don't even know. I definitely don't
Speaker 1: you and you don't want to know. Um, how do you?
Speaker 1: Are you happy with the reception you've gotten? Almost definitely
Speaker 1: have with this reception again for the book. Now, it's
Speaker 1: funny how people call me a legend. I still can't
Speaker 1: get used to that. That's that's I'm just I'm just
Speaker 1: a football player. But just I guess the things I've
Speaker 1: done in the league and the way I played, and
Speaker 1: you know that my mind is like that. They talk
Speaker 1: about the Jerry Curll and the glasses knowing the big
Speaker 1: pads you know it's it's just it's funny, you know.
Speaker 1: But I'll say, man, I'm I'm glad I played. I'm glad.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad I played the sport. I love the sport.
Speaker 1: When I played it, I mean I really did love it.
Speaker 1: I mean it was time sway. They make you hate it,
Speaker 1: they really do. But man, all in all, I loved it.
Speaker 1: I mean I really did. When I first came in
Speaker 1: the league, man, because it was a smell in the
Speaker 1: air when football season was coming. Oh yes, football time.
Speaker 1: You just knew. I just loved everything about it. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, I have a little I have a little
Speaker 1: ten year old son. He plays flag football. He loves it.
Speaker 1: He loves it too, and he's he's gonna be fast. Man,
Speaker 1: he's fast off. Oh god, he's so talent. I'm not
Speaker 1: just I'm not saying he gonna play sports. I'm apeddly
Speaker 1: like that right now. I'm not saying that he's really smart,
Speaker 1: but man, he is, Brian. I'm telling you, I saw
Speaker 1: this when he was four years old. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: he's gonna be no top aflee. I'm just saying it.
Speaker 1: But I know what I saw. He did something he
Speaker 1: was in the you know, you know us like you
Speaker 1: running on the wall like both Jackson did and dove
Speaker 1: on his bid for him like like, how did you
Speaker 1: do that? Said, I don't know. I said do it again.
Speaker 1: So did it again. I'm like wow, I'm like okay.
Speaker 1: So one day he was in the doorway. He started
Speaker 1: clowning the doorway, you know, climbed all to the top
Speaker 1: of the door at four I'm like, hey, boy, you
Speaker 1: don't get hurt. He said no. I'm not saying no.
Speaker 1: I can said, come down. I said, do it again.
Speaker 1: He did it again, Like okay. So I just watched
Speaker 1: suff people do it, and I tell my best friend,
Speaker 1: I said, I said, Drake, we went to college together.
Speaker 1: So I'm telling you man, I said, I think this
Speaker 1: boy is gonna be better than his dad. He said, Dick,
Speaker 1: And I'll say that's too that's too much pressure, I said.
Speaker 1: I said, you just watch watch him, Just watch him
Speaker 1: for a while and you'll see stuff he can do.
Speaker 1: And sure enough, one day he's saying that. He said, Dick, man,
Speaker 1: you might be right. I said, you see it there,
Speaker 1: he said, he said, yes, I mean right right now.
Speaker 1: He runs track. He runs track. He's he's ten years
Speaker 1: old and he's got out like two thousand kids. He's
Speaker 1: got the best time in the hundred in California, in
Speaker 1: the hundred to I think the two of these got
Speaker 1: like the third best time. He had the first best
Speaker 1: time long job, the first best time first time. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's just such a good athlete. You know, both of
Speaker 1: my kids, my daughters, the same way. But you know,
Speaker 1: as a boy, you know playing sports, you hope do
Speaker 1: I wanted to play football, yes and no. But I
Speaker 1: tell him, I tell him this here. I said, son,
Speaker 1: I said, you like flag. I said, what your dad
Speaker 1: played tackle. It's just a difference. They said, I understand,
Speaker 1: I said, but you really don't understand. I said, one
Speaker 1: day you will. I said, but I want to make
Speaker 1: sure you love it. I say, if you don't love it,
Speaker 1: I don't want you playing it. He said, okay, because
Speaker 1: he said football, you gotta love it. You have to,
Speaker 1: because he loves track and he loves football. But I said,
Speaker 1: you said when when you tackle, when they started tackling,
Speaker 1: not tackling you, I want to make sure you love it,
Speaker 1: and I just want to make sure they get you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But well, I truly could talk to you. We can
Speaker 1: talk forever forever. I do have to ask you this
Speaker 1: because it it occurred to me when you just brought
Speaker 1: up again the thirty for thirty. How do you feel
Speaker 1: about the thought? Did a fantastic job on it? They
Speaker 1: really did. I mean I didn't have enough time to
Speaker 1: really lay it all out. They did a great job
Speaker 1: on it. That is, did a good job directing it.
Speaker 1: Whoever produced it did a great job. Because when they
Speaker 1: called me about it, they called me, and I never
Speaker 1: took the g I wouldn't take his call. You can
Speaker 1: kind of want to talk about it. You know, they
Speaker 1: seen you in the death pendem momic, so create a
Speaker 1: comm He said, gotta keep calling me, I said, I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know who he is. So I think June
Speaker 1: Jones and comments said Eric the guy and his status,
Speaker 1: and he's called a couple of times. You called him back,
Speaker 1: I said, NA said, what does he want? He said,
Speaker 1: he wants to talk about SMU and talk about what
Speaker 1: happened and how great y'all were, you know, and how
Speaker 1: wrong it was. I said, no problem, I'll talk about
Speaker 1: that right. So that's how I got him, and I
Speaker 1: thought that I thought he did a family's job. I think.
Speaker 1: I think what nade me really realize it is when
Speaker 1: other people like wait, young at me said, man, I
Speaker 1: didn't know y'all would like that. Yeah, I didn't know
Speaker 1: y'all good. Yeah, man, I said, we were dominant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, man, y'all were good. I said, yeah, said man.
Speaker 1: I love y'all's uniforms. I said, when they sweet, so sweet.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you I I actually have SMU on
Speaker 1: my golf bag. And anytime you know, come across somebody
Speaker 1: I don't know, or somebody's you know, I mentioned that
Speaker 1: I went to s m U. At other times, everybody,
Speaker 1: I mean to a person I've had, never had anyone
Speaker 1: or you with me. They've said that thirty for thirty
Speaker 1: was the best one and maybe the best sports documentary
Speaker 1: of all time. It is. It is just so well
Speaker 1: done and tell us the story. Well, look, you don't
Speaker 1: want to be called a legend, but you are. And
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. I appreciate our time together, and I
Speaker 1: so appreciate you talking to me again. Watch my Smoke,
Speaker 1: the Eric Dickerson's story. You cannot tell me that you
Speaker 1: didn't fall in love with the stories that Eric told today.
Speaker 1: And I want you to go and pick up the
Speaker 1: book and read more. I am so happy for you
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for talking to me. I
Speaker 1: thank you for having I appreciated good seeing you. We've
Speaker 1: gotta gotta play golf man, absolutely all right, thank you,
Speaker 1: all right, no problem, Eric, Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: coming on the podcast today. You're the best. And I
Speaker 1: am telling everyone I know to check out your book.
Speaker 1: Listeners make sure to pick up a copy. I promise
Speaker 1: you will not be disappointed. And of course, listeners also
Speaker 1: catch us next week or another episode of Off the
Speaker 1: Beat in the meantime. Just follow us on Instagram, leave
Speaker 1: a review. We do look at them. I promise, and uh.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for next week with another entertainment guest
Speaker 1: on Off the Beat, and next Thursday as well, there
Speaker 1: will be another Off the Beat Sports. We'll see you soon.
Speaker 1: Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers are
Speaker 1: Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our
Speaker 1: talent doucer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is
Speaker 1: Sammy Cats. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak performed by
Speaker 1: Hi Great Friend Creed Breton, and the episode was mixed
Speaker 1: by seth Olandski.