WEBVTT - Eric Dickerson Exposes NFL’s Double Standard 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.440 Welcome back to all the smoke. Man. We got someone. 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.160 I'm really excited about this because I grew up a 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:07.920 forty nine Er fan. My dad grew up a Ram fan, 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.680 and this was the guy on the Rams. They had 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:14.079 the same hair too, Jack, and they both bald, and 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:16.400 they both and they both bald now Jackson, I don't 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.639 know if that, if that has anything to do, but 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.160 six time Pro bowler, five time first team All Pro, 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:23.160 theyre of the Year in eighty six offensive rookie and 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.200 eighty three single season record holder for twenty one hundred 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.840 and five yards, and he was a big back. Jack 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.320 six three two twenty real one. Welcome to the show, 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:37.959 the legendary Eric Dickerson. Man, I'm decided I had a time. 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:39.680 I don't really tell my dad too much. If he 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:41.840 catches the show, he catches the show. But Mike Tyson 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.000 and Eric Dickerson are his two favorite people. So I 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.080 told him, and he couldn't believe it. But so shout 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:48.600 out to Pops and again, man, thank you for being here. 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:49.920 I tell you hello. 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:53.520 Definitely, how's life? I know you play a lot of golf. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.240 What's going on with you these days? 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.120 Look good man? Man, I'm trying to maintain b it's tulping. 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:00.840 You get old. I tell you, y'all find out one 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.120 day on the way it's good. I mean, I just 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:05.679 I just came over here from a thing I do 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.440 for the Rams with some kids, a little football camp. 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.440 I do a radio show during the football season, work 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.800 for the team. But you know, life is good. I mean, 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.280 especially still living in LA after all these years. 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.360 Last season sakwon Barkley, you had made some comments. Some 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.520 people say, hey, it's just a competitor and you some 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.640 people took it a different way. He was on the 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.440 heels of the rushing record, and you had some thoughts 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:29.759 on it. 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:31.880 As you kind of sit. 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.480 Here today, remove from the situation, how do you look 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:35.679 back on that experience. 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.760 It's funny people making these assumptions and saying things I 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.119 didn't say. So Shady McCoy said something I did not say. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.880 Pac Man Jones said something I did not say. Matter 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:48.640 of fact, I kind of you know, I don't I 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:50.360 don't get on social media a lot, but I made 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.720 a comment about it, and I saw Shady at the 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.320 Super Bowl and I said, man, let me explain something to you. First, 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.639 of all records or records and I don't think anybody 0:01:58.680 --> 0:01:59.560 wants their record broke. 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:00.840 Say I. 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.280 I would never hate on another running back. That's just 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.040 not me. I mean, I broke the record in nineteen 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:09.120 eighty four. Oh J did in seventy three. He did 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.200 in fourteen games. I did in fifteen games, one extra game. 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.079 And I've always said that I always give him that 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.000 acknowledgement because he's my favorite player. That's why I played 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.000 the position running back. And I said, if you break 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:21.600 the record, he breaks it, do I want to break it? 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.440 No? I mean, I'm not excuse me, I'm not no bitch. 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:26.720 I'm not why. I love the guy that's gonna go like, 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.519 oh yeah, we're gonna be doing Chile. Don't break the record. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:29.799 I said. 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.960 I've always said this, if somebody breaks my record, I 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.840 want to be my son. That's it, right, And if 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.200 somebody breaks it, I ain't gonna lose no sleepover. I mean, 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:40.400 I mean I said it was like it was like 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.320 petty stuff, like I'm hating on him. Like I'm not 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.280 hating I'm pulling for him because when he got to 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.440 the Giants, never got to the Giants. And I kept saying, 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.800 this boy never reached his potential there, and when he 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.360 went to Philly, I say, finally he'll get a chance 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:55.960 to show what he can really do. So I was 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.559 happy for him. So see, that's just that's the misconception 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.040 of social media and people saying Steph, they really don't 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.919 know anything about because anybody know me. No, I'm gonna 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.359 tell you what I think. My dad said the truth 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.800 and popular something, but it's the truth, and that's just 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:10.200 the truth. 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:12.079 I love that. I'm glad you get a chance to 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.200 speak your truth. You mentioned O J. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.400 Simpson arguably be one of the greatest running backs of 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:18.600 all time. Did you ever get a chance to meet him? 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:20.400 Did he ever mentor you in any kind of way? 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.280 Did I meet? That's my guy? Yeah, man, matter face. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.880 After I first met OJ, when I came to California, 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.480 I got recruited by usc IF. I'm from the smartest 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.000 first time I have on the plane coming my recruiting 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.160 right a small town. Two thousand people came on my 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:37.720 visits and me and some other kids on the field 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.200 and we saw Oja standing over there because he was 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.600 playing in the Rose Boy They're playing Michigan. I was like, man, 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:44.400 I want to say something. OJ said, I try to 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:45.840 get the guy. And I said, man, I gotta go 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:47.680 say something. And I was shot, but I had to 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:49.680 and I walked he I say, I'm missus Simpson and 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:51.680 say how you doing. I said, my name is so 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.560 what you to ask her? Dickerson? I'm from Texas, seely Texas, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.800 I said the recruiting I said, yes, sir, what position? 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:58.560 I say, running back? You're my favorite player. 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:00.800 Tell them I had two thoush and yards twice in 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:03.120 high school and so yeah, I said, yeah, I said, 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:04.480 the one day I like to break your record. It's 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.480 a good level. Yeah, good leuvel day, young man. And 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:10.760 you know, he didn't remember we talked about it. But 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:12.560 you know, one of my favorite people, OJ, you know, 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.119 I'm not with the other other stuff. And I saw 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.880 him about two three months before he passed away. I 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.520 was in Las Vegas. We played golf together when i'd 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.240 go to Vegas. But you know, the OJ that I knew, 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.200 you know, was a really good, funny guy. 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:29.279 The other stuff, you know, yeah, I'm not. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.160 You played against a lotted a lot of loaded boxes. 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.159 Some people say you didn't play with the you know, 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.320 never got a chance to play with an elite quarterback. 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.400 Or even offense, and that sort when you look back 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.000 on your career and see what you were able to 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.159 achieve without really a passing game around you, knowing that 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:49.640 they were keying on you every single game, what are 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:50.160 your thoughts? 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.719 Well, you're right, I played against a lot of eight 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.039 and nine nine in fronts. I mean, it was no fun, 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.360 let me tell you that. But six K block eight, 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.440 you know, six K black nine, it's impossible, and it 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:01.880 comes to the point you have to make people miss 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:02.400 and I just can't. 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:03.560 You can't make up that excuse. 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.000 I mean, I was a big back, I was fast, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.560 I was you know, I was a track guy. But 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:10.279 that's just the hand I was dealt. 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:10.440 You know. 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:12.080 People said, oh, he didn't want a Super Bowl and 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.360 I didn't have that kind of team. I mean when 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.760 I when I left the Colts and men left the Rams, 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:18.799 I want to go to the Redskins because my cousin 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.200 dectmentally was that, Okay, that's where I wanted to go. 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.159 And he called me said, man, okay, sit man, I 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.920 heard we're trying to get you, like I know, he said, 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.880 I know, he said, Man, they didn't let that happen. 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.320 That's too much like right, and they want a super 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:31.800 Bowl that year. They didn't let it happen. 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.320 Said that Doug Walliams back there, Yeah, Doug was that. 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:35.880 That was a quarterback that was quote, what do your 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:36.240 thoughts on? 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:38.200 Kind of like because you were obviously a superstar of 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.960 your time and but in today's game, stuper tars can 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.560 kind of dictate what the money is where they want 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:47.440 to go. Back then, you guys didn't really have that 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:48.640 voice or put the stand on. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.640 It was stuck. Stuck, I mean stuck. Yeah, I understand. 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:53.920 When I came out, I was I was the second pick. 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:55.200 John was the first pick. 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:56.240 Uh. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.000 I had a six hundred thousand dollars signing bonus. My 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:03.359 Saturday was one fifth d and I think John was 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.400 making up a million dollars. But the funny thing was 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:08.039 when I got traded, I had to give my signing 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.600 bones back to the Rams. Everybody still that when they 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:12.200 say that, Yeah, so I never really got. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:13.800 A signing box from them, and we had to pay 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:15.040 that money that I get back to them. 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.000 It was supposed to be a forgivable balloon. That's what 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.160 they played, called up forgivable belong. They didn't forgive it 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:21.839 when I got traded and I probably could have fought. 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:23.680 It, but I was sold. But they traded you, they 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.400 traded me, and you had to give them money and 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.440 I had I read I never heard no shit. 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:29.840 Like that, So I gave I had to give their 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:31.919 money back to them, and it was. It was a 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.480 bad deal with the before the contract that it was. 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.480 The Rams were one of the cheapest team in the league. 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:39.920 I mean, but did I left playing for him? 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:40.240 Yeah? 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:41.880 Because I had a lot of guys on the team. 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.160 We were close knit football team. We had the offensive line, 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.200 uh that was second to one of the Redskins. We 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.800 didn't have a great quarterback, but we had to run 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:52.800 a game. And the thing was that we were gonna 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:54.360 pounce you with the running game. You know, if you 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:55.960 couldn't stop it, you couldn't stop it. 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.440 And a January twenty twenty two interview with The New 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.080 York Times, you discover us possibly suffering from CTE. 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:04.840 Where are you at with that? Is that something that's Oh? 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.440 Yeah, man, of course, I mean I'm not the same guy. 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.280 I wasn't, like, you know, even after I retired, you know, 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:11.960 you don't know, I mean, like right now, I got 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:14.840 I got the own sense of Parkinson's. I gotta take 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.840 a medication for Parkinson's. I'm gonna tell you this. The 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:22.040 sad thing about this whole deal is that with the NFL, 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.160 and look, I love playing I just love playing football, 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.520 and the NFL makes you hate the NFL where they 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.040 treat the players, especially black players, like a lot of 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:33.960 you probably never heard you ever heard of race on me? 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.080 Yeah, is that they said that they raced on the 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.440 black rationed on us. Break that down though, because I 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:39.360 remember reading about that. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.000 So what they'll do. What they'll say is, Okay, we 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.160 take the black player and white player. The white player 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.200 was already smart. The black player was not smart already, 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.120 so if he comes down, the white players should get 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.040 paid by the black players shouldn't get because he was 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:52.760 already dumb. 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:54.720 Basically, he was already kind of dumb. And this wasn't 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:55.720 even that long ago though. 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:57.520 Oh, this was only this was like five years ago. 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.840 And they they said, the OI won't do it again. 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.000 I mean, it's like when when we get hurt, you know, 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.320 it's it's it's like like right now, you know, it's 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.000 in the case with them, for for for the Parkinson's 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:14.520 and c t E. And we all get get so 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:16.880 many s that get denied. Give a great example, my 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:22.680 friend Christian a choir, we're just playing. I was teasing 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:24.760 by it the other day because he got that accent 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:30.080 and so he's going for a ct E case and 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.000 and the race Norman thing came in saying that, well 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.120 he's Nigerian, so maybe he couldn't speak good any he 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.880 don't understand. I was teaching, I said, I was teaving. 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:44.960 I said, maybe they're right, but but then that's just 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:45.840 some of the stuff. 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:46.040 Man. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.800 It's great game, but it's the way they treat the 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.920 black players. Man, it's horrible. I just got to say it. Man, 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.520 it's it's a it's a bad look. And not not everybody, 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:57.400 but it's just a bad look. It really is. 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.440 I mean, to this day to think that's still the 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:01.280 I mean, I've to see, we can see what the 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:02.079 world is going through. 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:03.080 But to see that kind. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:07.800 Of thinking in that thought in twenty twenty and beyond 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:09.160 is insane. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:10.360 Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.120 this question. I can ask a question. Yes, okay, y'all 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.679 have health care, Yes, the life, the life, life and 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.840 family family too, family kids to twenty five capsire, our 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.199 kids and yeah, y'all got a good pension and everything. Okay, 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:24.520 let me just give you an example. Let me give 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.959 an example for football. Okay, Deacon Jones. Deacon Jones passed 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.760 about ten years ago something like that. So I would 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:32.280 to see d wait before he was in the hospital 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.000 for it was sick. And if he med and him talk, 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:35.600 You said, what's your pension? I said, Man, I don't know. 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.520 I say, you could probably be what fifteen hundred a month? 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:40.800 He said, you know what I get, Eric, I played 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.760 fifteen years. I get two hundred fifty dollars a month. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.120 That's what I get. Two hundred fifty dollars, say I 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.040 taket so they can have it. We have no health 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.600 care like players like me. I pay for my own 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:51.240 health care. You have to lead you pay for your 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.360 own healthcare. Now the players have health care five years, 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:56.200 that's it. 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:58.000 While they're in the league of post career. 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.600 Post career like say, say you retired thirty, You got 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:01.560 this ship for five years. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.120 That's it. And it is not your family or nobody else. 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:05.959 How many years you got to play. 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:07.880 To good Pincher, you got to play four years and 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:12.640 three games is five. Yeah, but the Pincher that it's better. 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.840 It's better for the players now. But it's horrible. When 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.760 I say horrible for us, oh man, it's it's seven 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.800 hundred dollars guys who played like fourteen years right now 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.840 and played in my air, like the nineties, eighties and nineties, 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:27.480 you know, thousand dollars a month. 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:30.640 Chris Pon Cowrie did a great job. They they went 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:32.320 back and did it with all the older guys that's 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:34.719 still alive. But they did it for the older guys. 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:36.360 They all getting on sure the same assurance we got 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:37.920 all get the older guys getting in now. 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:39.760 Man, they switched it up because. 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:42.560 It is really really sad they're all getting say this, 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.240 and I'm not trying to, you know, make it bad 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:48.720 like talk about the NFL like it. It's some good 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.839 things they've done, some bad things they've done. I did 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:52.720 an interview with the white with this white reporter and 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.880 and he says, Eric, you said you probably know I'm white, 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:56.560 so I can tell you white. Yeah, I'm talking on 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:58.199 the phone with him. He said, let me tell you. 0:10:58.240 --> 0:10:59.679 This is tell I'm gonna tell you what that not 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.480 what I but I don't know what I've heard and 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.560 what I know as a reporter. I said, okay. He said, 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.120 what's the NFL eighty percent black? I say seven to 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.560 eighty percent black. He said, now let me say this. 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.120 I said, okay. He said, if the NFL was eighty 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.679 percent of white, y'all have great insurance. I would have 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:18.320 great healthcare. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.640 I'm like, wow, I know that. No secret. 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.080 That's just sad to say, though. And he said, he said, 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:25.839 and that's what he said. He said, isn't that's sad 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:27.320 I have to say it like that. I said, yeah, 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:28.120 but it's sad to say it. 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:28.600 It's the truth. 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.120 I got a question in your time, was it more 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.000 the league or was it more of the good old 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:34.320 boys club of the owners. 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:36.080 It's still a good old boys club. Man. 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.400 They didn't have no black owners. They're not having no 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.760 no no. Like I think magic owns. They're not having 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:46.559 you no black owned. Yeah, I am, you're not having it. 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.680 I got it. I think a couple of you guys 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.079 on football team. Another guy that was trying to buy 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.080 a football team, and he was talking to me about 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.520 I said, let me tell you something. I said, you 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.439 want to me, I said, don't go in there, say 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.240 you're trying to help the players. He said, I said that. 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:03.000 I said, you screwed up. He said I could tell. 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:05.280 He said, I could tell I screwed I said, you 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.480 don't say that. You're trying to have to play. It's 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.600 not about the players. It's about the money they can make. 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:10.679 That's insane. 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.839 They'll give a couple of athletes and rappers like a 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:15.120 little percentage of the teams. 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.640 Yeah, you can point take pictures zero zero yeah, zero 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.640 zero one. No full ownership? What nah? 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:24.880 The good thing to me and I don't wish that. 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.240 I know when that the good old boys, if your generation, 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:30.480 those guys are passing on. 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:32.840 Yep, but it's still going. But they passed, they passed 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.239 on their kids, and it's really good that mentality. 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.280 Don't leave. It's still it's still a good old boys situation. 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.440 Silly Texas, seventy miles western Houston. What was football like? 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.320 You know, I'm a lot younger, and you know the 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.480 football was always big? Was I growing up in Texas? 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:50.560 You know that Friday night life that's really big? Was 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:51.840 it like that when you was coming up? 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:52.120 Oh? 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.160 Yeah, man, you know football in my little hometown. You 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.079 talking about the town of it was fifty people that 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:02.080 my graduating class. Shut the whole town down, Shut the 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.440 whole time down. Let's just one to eight. It was two, Yeah, 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.160 it was two. A football we won once stayed. My 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.800 senior year, we played Wiley, the wily Wildcats up at 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.640 Baylor Stadium. Matter of fact, Uh, they had won the 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:16.800 year before and they were all white and we were 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.960 black and white opposedly black, and so I won't forget. 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:21.680 We were trying to get a place for us to play, 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:23.720 and they said, we can't blame these black families up 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.000 that far. So we played in wild and I forget 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.199 the first Cup places the conus the N word out there, 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.680 you know, and I laugh, I'm like, these little white 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:37.440 boys the hell out of them. Yeah, I think forty 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.280 two to twenty with the final score. I still remember, 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.640 don't know how, but we be But man football it's big, 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:44.680 that's still and that's you know, you know, you know 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:45.480 Texas football. 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:47.440 It's no joke. You go to Texas and there's these 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:53.559 these high school stadiums up ninety million. That's crazy. 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.080 You spoke on something that that I had a lot 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:00.720 of trouble with in my upbringing, racism, And obviously, you know, 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:02.240 there are the times now where you could smile and 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:03.920 laugh at it. But in the in the moment, you 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.480 faced a lot of racism. Uh, can you talk to. 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:07.920 Us about it? And what what were the some of 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.520 the depths of racism you've seen? Oh? Man, it's it's deep. 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:14.320 I mean I think about what I've dealt with, but 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.959 I think about like people like Jim Brown and those 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.720 guys that played in that era, the night Train Lane 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.560 and you know, in the baseball Jackie Robinson. That was 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.400 you know, way more, you know than what I dealt with. 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.160 But it was bad, It really was. I mean, you'd 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.640 get the you'd get the letters and the mail. You know, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.040 you you you you niggas, y'all need to just play 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.520 for free, you know. Yeah, but a bunch of monkeys. Anyway, 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.440 I got them kind of letters. I don't forgive. When 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.080 I went to when I went to Indiana, I got 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.960 a bunch of hate mail from every sins of California, 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.360 you know, because I left, and I didn't want to leave, 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:52.120 but I you know, money, So anyway, I got a 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.360 lot of hate mail. But the thing I think that 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.600 really put me out with Indianapolis and I didn't want 0:14:57.600 --> 0:14:58.960 to go to indian I'm gonna tell how I tell 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:00.120 you that I didn't want to go to India. That 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:01.880 was not my choice. My head coach was there. I 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.360 liked Ron Meyer and he always told me. He said, 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:06.120 you know, I'll get you paid. I'll make you a 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:07.800 million that one day when I was in college, you 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.080 said that to me. So I get to Indy. And 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.480 that's by my last year that they fired him. It 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.680 was a bad situation. Ersay was not a good person. 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.160 Jim irsay, I'm not Jimmy was a good person. It's 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.680 old man bobur say. What they did was never forget it. 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.520 And this is where I'm like, I'm done with this place. 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.000 You know, you hang a banner over the state, like 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.400 you know, over the rail. They hung a banner over 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.800 the rail with a picture of a black baby and 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:39.280 any sitting position with twenty nine with money on one side, 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.000 stack of water melons on the other, fleeting fried chicken, 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.000 and let that stay up there till almost half time 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.560 after halftime. And I never forget the girl I was dating, 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.640 a sister girl and we still were best friends to day, 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.800 named Holly, and I met, you know, after you know 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:54.120 the game, you meet your girl come down. 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.920 She was crying. Every said, how could you eat? And 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.200 that's your home stadium, that's my home state, that's my 0:15:59.240 --> 0:15:59.640 home state. 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.560 So I could you even play with that? I said, 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:04.600 you know, you just got to kind of deal with it. 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:05.920 And I tell the first time I saw a clan 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:08.200 rally was in Indianapolis, you know, and look. 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.400 They still have it every the dude and the Grand 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.920 Marshall still lives in Indiana really right everywhere. 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:13.880 And all that. 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:15.520 That's where they happened. I mean, it was a trip 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.160 to me. I mean, it's just that's a whole different 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.360 world out there. I mean it maybe it changed some, 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.080 but I know what I saw. And you know, the 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.560 thing is funny. It's funny how they want us to 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:27.200 get over it. 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:29.280 You know, you're the bigger person. Get to get over 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.960 get over it. I mean, you gotta understand me. I was. 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.120 I was a di was legally adopted by my great 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.240 great art. She was born in nineteen oh four, and 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:39.720 she did not want me dating no white girls back then. 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:40.040 They said. 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:42.280 She said, I'm gonna tell you their Eric said two 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.960 things don't live along in this world. Say on't mother, 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.160 And she was fun I said, what I just see 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.400 it like she said that. She said, dollarsy chase cars 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:53.840 and niggas rolls and chase white they don't live along 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:55.920 in this world. She said, I've seen the evil things 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.600 white men do. She said, I've seen it. I see 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.080 them trying father, I see them cutting's private off, sticking. 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:01.480 That's South. 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:03.200 You know when you think when you were a kid, 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.199 I'm like that that couldn't happen, you know, and I'm like, 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:08.639 I didn't say I didn't believe it, but it was 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.480 just hard to fathom that. But she had saw those 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.720 kind of things, and you know, the racism thing to 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:15.200 be just it's just ignorant. 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.600 Did you come across a plug guy named June James 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:18.280 when he was in. 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.000 For the coach June James. His name was like baby 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:22.639 June James. I can't remember. 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:24.840 So he died in a car accident when he was 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:26.959 playing for the Coats around the time. One of my 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.760 first cousins, uh me and Marcus Bill's first cousin. He 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:31.040 was our first family member of the player to make 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.280 professional sports. But he was y'all was on the same team, 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:33.800 was it? 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:34.080 Yeah? 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:35.960 He was on your team? I know we had we 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:37.800 had a couple players that diamond. One player got shot. 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.400 Yeah he died in a car accident. Really yeah yeah, Man. 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.800 Speak about the booster coach in Texas and all the 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:48.160 pressure that Clarence Share put on you to go to Texas. 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:54.479 And I ain't know about Clarence. She got the smartest 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:56.760 people around. Oh man. Uh yeah. 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.159 They wanted me to go to Texas, A and M 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.760 in the see the Aga town, I mess Aga Town 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:07.960 and never forget you know, they recruited me heavily, real hard, 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:09.800 and I committed to them one time. Man, but I 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:11.480 didn't want to go to an M. I mean I didn't. 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:12.760 And the reason I didn't want to go to that 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:14.719 I was a good, good school. My cousin went there 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:16.560 and played foot bottom and I told them I should 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.199 go there because I liked them at this point. But 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.360 you know, they had them yeale leaders. They had no cheerleaders. 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:23.880 It was a lot of girls there. I'm like, man, 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:25.359 I don't want to be on no damn year leaders. 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:30.560 I want some cheerleaders. So but they made I forget that. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.800 They came to mind, not him, but they some boosters 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.880 came to my house, never forget it. And my mother, 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.960 my real mom, and my lady who died my great aunt. 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.440 They were in the in the house and said, come in, 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:44.760 let me talk to you. I said, yes, ma'am. She said, 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:46.639 let me tell you something. She said, them white folks 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.280 got a briefcase and they were fifty thousand dollars in it. 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:51.400 So I never seen that much money in my whole life. 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:53.359 She said, but you don't want to go to this school. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.280 Don't tell me any taking these people's money. And I 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:58.560 wasn't just I don't think I want to go there. 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:00.199 She said, we ain't taking any money, because I mean, 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:01.639 I got to say my mother she was, She was 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:03.919 the one who been Tegrian and she really was. And 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.520 I couldn't do that. I just I didn't want to 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:07.320 go down and. 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:08.240 Them off of this offer. 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.119 You stepped down the house in west View the white 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.400 party of the white part of Stiling and a few 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:14.679 had a few head of cattle. 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:15.000 Guy. 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:19.160 They giving away Cattley want your now, nobody giving away 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:21.440 cattle now money. 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:23.480 That's the money right now. I ain't given them, ain't 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:24.919 no count. I really want you to do that. 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:29.600 Man, you originally committed to texting them, didn't committed. Story 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:31.520 goes They kept the whip. Is it true, you didn't 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:33.560 go to them because of the school with seven per cent. Guys, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.760 that's absolutely true. Right, that's absolutely true. Okay, that's absolutely true. 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.880 That's the truth. I mean I think that, I mean 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:44.000 that was the right choice. Who would do that? Who 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:45.000 would do that? All them? 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.800 Boyd that phield slipped the other way. I just would 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.879 have went to school. Fuck the pros straight up. Seventy 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.520 thirty seventy So you kept the whip that and them? 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:56.200 Are you gonna pass that again? 0:19:56.400 --> 0:20:00.399 Transam? The trans am? Well, let me tell even the 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:04.800 trains got it? No, I've seen pictures there. It is 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.520 right there, Yes, sir, little hair we're walking out of 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:16.680 a restaurant there and see what you call the hair 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:17.200 back then? 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:22.520 Yeah, you know smoking the bandit yeah, t top T 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:23.720 top t T top. 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:25.520 No. I don't have that car any more. Matter of fact. 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.560 When I my uh, I think going into my senior year, 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:30.600 I got a I got a car Vette, and then 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:32.679 I gave my best friend in that car and ended 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:34.879 up getting stolen. But how the car did it? You 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.440 know the story? The car came about? So the car 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:39.600 came about. I used to go down to Houston see 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.919 this car place called Leo Johnigan's it's like looking look 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:44.960 at the cars and look at that car. Go down 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:46.800 there like every couple of weeks just to look at it. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.480 Look look at it was on the showroom floor, showroom floor. 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.080 I know what that feels like, just to look at it. 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:55.879 And you know, and then they heard, you know, they 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:57.520 told money my step I'll tell my mother. You know, 0:20:57.840 --> 0:20:59.359 they told my mother that I liked the car. So 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:00.800 I remember one I think it was like a Friday, 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.200 said Eric. She said, we're gonna drive down to Houston 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.199 with me, your grandmother, them down there to look at 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:09.680 that car. At that the I mean transnd like, okay, 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:10.880 so go down. 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:12.800 What are you seventeen eighteen at this point. 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:19.040 Seventeen seventeen seventeen. So go down look at it. And 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:24.080 it's like three white men. My real mother, my adopted mother, 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:30.280 my grandmother was there, and my grandfather was there. So 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:31.960 they said take the car and take it for a drive. 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:33.960 I took the car. I take it for a drive 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:36.360 to come back and I go to kend of Key's 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:37.119 basically I'll keep it. 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:41.720 It's yours, oh ship, really, I'm like, it's my it's yours. Man. 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:45.400 I was excited color color. 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.080 Gold, the gold transit. Yeah, so what happened is so 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:51.000 matter of fact, but check it. 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.199 It was. It was. It was such big news. 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.400 Let me see that would say a Friday, Monday morning, 0:21:58.000 --> 0:21:59.080 the n C Double A was. 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:02.000 At my high school. Guy came to my class. I 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:03.280 was in. I was in. I was in a lab 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:05.000 class and never forget it. Let me get them keys. 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:07.800 I came in like that, knock on the door, and 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:10.080 the teacher said to him till he said, Eric, this 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:12.280 guy want to speak to you out here. It's different 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:14.359 here and people walk on campus. And I said, I 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:16.000 walked out. He said, yeah, Sam, I'm so and so 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:18.119 from the n Clack my brother n C Double A, 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:19.920 and I want to talk to you about your trans am. 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:22.680 You got, I said, okay, I said, well. He talked 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:24.720 to my mom. I said, uh, And she told me 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:26.639 somebody come in by to call you about to call you. 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:28.520 Tell him call me. So sure enough, I said, They 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:30.280 got to my address. He said, God, how to go 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:30.760 to the house. 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:31.320 She let him. 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:33.200 I had to go to the office and I talked 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:34.960 to my mother him come to the house. When I 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:36.600 got home, they were there. He was he was there 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:39.520 talking to my mother about the car, and he talked, talked, talk, 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:41.920 Make a long story short. I saw this man every 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:47.520 day for about I almost say, almost two months, two 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:49.919 or three months. Every day even sometime it was he 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:51.600 came to the house so much that he would eat 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.000 with us. He said, I to eat with us and 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.320 then find out and see him. One day, I said, Mama, 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:57.760 what happened? He said, I'm gonna see he said, Your 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:00.760 grandmother say she want to see my grandmother grandfather too. 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:04.760 Your grandmother told that man, if I see you, well, 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:07.119 if I see anybody from the n C double A 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:10.720 again at my house or Eric's mom's house, we're gonna 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:12.160 sue you at the n C double man. 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:13.480 That was so I'm again, Yeah. 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.080 So I can tell you what happened when I because 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:17.160 I didn't find this out to later. 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:18.080 How the car got paid for? 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:19.000 Uh? 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:19.840 I asked my mom? 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:21.159 I said, Mom said the car and I was in 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.280 the pros. How they caught that car come up? She 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:25.040 didn't know how the car? I said, no, She say, 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.400 what happened is? She said, your grandmother and them they 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:30.120 have the money for the car. She rode the check 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:33.040 row the check and and them gave her the cash 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:35.200 for it, and they can't go back and say, hey, 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:36.160 I bought that car. 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:38.760 You know he got that car. She said, that's how 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:41.560 the car came about it. Yep. So they were smart. 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:44.080 They knew what they was doing the art of being 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:45.800 a big back. You talk about how oh J we 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:47.760 had a big influence on you, but you had any 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:50.960 other influences when you talk about big running backs. 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:54.119 Not really, you know. I liked Earl Camel. Earl was 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:56.480 he was man, he was, he was a beast. I 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:59.040 liked writing an Earl play. But my guy, and I 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:01.800 still say to me the greatest backwards OJ. I just 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:04.359 love watching him play. That is why I played the 0:24:04.359 --> 0:24:07.200 position running back. I mean I never wanted to wear 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:09.760 anyone else's number. I didn't I want to make my 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:12.400 own number. I was like, you know, I didn't want 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:15.240 to be OJ like that, But as a player, he 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:17.800 was a guy that I loved watching play. And I 0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:19.840 think I like Jim Brown. I didn't see I didn't 0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:23.320 see Jim. I just saw old highlights. Yeah, yeah, washing 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:27.200 I saw OJ live. What's your philosophy as a rush? 0:24:27.320 --> 0:24:30.000 Are you do a type of Russia that IM go 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:32.560 off instinct? Are you playing ahead before you get the ball. 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:34.240 You know what you're gonna do before. I don't think 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:37.240 any if a player says that they playing certain things, 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:39.760 you can plan ahead. But it's hard football because it's 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:42.840 there's so many moving parts. I mean that game you 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:45.040 get out there like basketball, man, I mean, I can 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:48.080 tell you this basketball. I felt I could play basketball. 0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:49.520 I know when I'm playing no pro basketball. When I 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:52.040 watch y'all guys play, it's amazing how fast it is. 0:24:52.080 --> 0:24:54.800 And you know, like a donkey like boom, I'm like, damn, 0:24:56.320 --> 0:24:58.560 I said, go way up there. People think the same 0:24:58.600 --> 0:25:02.000 thing about football. I was what it happens fast like 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:03.600 for me, Like I said, I'm gonna say, I can 0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:06.840 kind of look through a play all right. So if 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:09.879 I'm running, were running talks they tossed right. You start 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:12.679 watching the defense. And my thing was I was fast, 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:15.480 so if I could get the defensive linemen and linebackers 0:25:15.520 --> 0:25:18.720 to do this to think started turn their hips, I 0:25:18.760 --> 0:25:20.560 knew my guys to get on them, and I could 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:24.320 have a lane stretch it cut back. That's about the 0:25:24.320 --> 0:25:26.280 only time because stuff is all instant. It happens when 0:25:26.280 --> 0:25:28.200 you see a guy coming. You make you make a movie. 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:30.040 You don't think about the move. It's like people if 0:25:30.040 --> 0:25:32.040 somebody asked me they about say Corn Barkley jumping over 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:34.640 the guy back and said, that's an instinct that he playing. 0:25:34.640 --> 0:25:37.320 I'm gonna jumper. No, it's just it's a reaction. It's 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:39.280 like if I go up to a punch that you 0:25:39.280 --> 0:25:40.520 you're gonna do that automatically. 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:41.520 It's just all instinct. 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:44.240 Talking about the DNA of Texas running backs, say a 0:25:44.240 --> 0:25:48.280 couple of names. Adrian Peterson, Jamal Charles is from my hometown, 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:50.600 pulled out the sex side of Jamal La Damien Thomas, 0:25:50.680 --> 0:25:52.920 and Earl Campbell is just in the water out there. 0:25:52.960 --> 0:25:55.840 It's in the water in the ap man about ap 0:25:56.000 --> 0:25:57.520 when I was you know, I was, I was in 0:25:57.560 --> 0:26:01.199 the pro. I was out of retired. But I'd hear 0:26:01.240 --> 0:26:03.320 about this kid, ap s man. This guy run just 0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:06.159 like you, Eric, you know, run just like you. And 0:26:06.320 --> 0:26:07.840 I saw him. I like Dann He's a big back. 0:26:07.880 --> 0:26:10.280 And I got to tell you he went to my 0:26:11.640 --> 0:26:15.159 second favorite school. Oh you I was. That's why I 0:26:15.160 --> 0:26:17.320 wanted to go to college. Ou so I gotta say 0:26:17.320 --> 0:26:20.719 it my second fractuse. I went to SMU and uh man, 0:26:20.920 --> 0:26:23.160 I just like ap Ap is he was a great 0:26:23.160 --> 0:26:25.600 football player. I like all the guys just named the Danian. 0:26:26.080 --> 0:26:28.000 I mean even though he went to TCU. You know, 0:26:28.000 --> 0:26:29.639 he didn't recruit him, so I don't blame him for that. 0:26:29.960 --> 0:26:33.600 M stayed in Texas. Mab stayed in Texas. Yeah, man, 0:26:33.640 --> 0:26:35.320 we just we just have a lot of great backs 0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:36.840 out of the state of Texas. 0:26:36.840 --> 0:26:38.480 For young kids that don't know the story of the 0:26:38.480 --> 0:26:41.680 Pony Express, you, Craig James, what would you tell them 0:26:41.880 --> 0:26:43.120 about that that team? 0:26:43.240 --> 0:26:45.159 I would tell him, First, look up the thirty for 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:48.760 thirty incredible success, look at Pony Excess, FIRSUS, and then 0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:51.320 but you know, we had some great football teams. I 0:26:51.359 --> 0:26:52.920 was just talking to one of my my teammates that 0:26:53.000 --> 0:26:54.880 lives here, my best friend, he was my full back. 0:26:55.680 --> 0:26:58.040 I think people look at us, you know, the Pony Express, 0:26:58.119 --> 0:26:59.639 that was part of a man. I'm gonna tell what 0:26:59.640 --> 0:27:02.760 we had. Man, we had a hell of a defense. 0:27:03.119 --> 0:27:08.840 I mean nasty defense. I mean they were dirty, they 0:27:08.880 --> 0:27:11.520 were big, they were fast. We had a lot of 0:27:11.520 --> 0:27:15.040 guys with prom Michael Carter, Russell, Carter, Harvey Armstrong, Blaine Smith, 0:27:15.160 --> 0:27:18.040 Wes Hopkins. We had a hell of a defense. I said, 0:27:18.040 --> 0:27:19.880 that's one thing that people don't realize about. I think 0:27:20.520 --> 0:27:23.359 semb Mustang, but the Pony Express. It came about me 0:27:23.400 --> 0:27:25.840 and Craig James. Both of us got highly recruited, he 0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:28.800 from Stratford Seeley. I didn't think it would work. I 0:27:28.800 --> 0:27:30.879 didn't think it would work. I mean, and Craig was 0:27:30.920 --> 0:27:31.360 a good back. 0:27:31.440 --> 0:27:32.000 He really was. 0:27:32.080 --> 0:27:34.040 And that's one of my best friends still to this day. 0:27:34.080 --> 0:27:35.800 I just talked to him a couple of days ago. 0:27:36.400 --> 0:27:38.760 But it worked out fine. I think it saved my 0:27:38.880 --> 0:27:41.360 career because I didn't, you know, have all the carries, 0:27:41.760 --> 0:27:43.600 you know, as a as a college player like a 0:27:43.600 --> 0:27:46.240 lot of these kids, and you know and say and 0:27:46.280 --> 0:27:46.919 it saved him too. 0:27:47.040 --> 0:27:49.359 So it say any truth that you took a little 0:27:49.359 --> 0:27:56.920 pay cut man, please going uhtle pennies. 0:27:56.960 --> 0:27:59.040 They were giving us no you know back and then 0:27:59.080 --> 0:28:02.720 that wasn't getting no real Let we gets about it. 0:28:02.920 --> 0:28:05.439 So what do you think about obviously the success you 0:28:05.480 --> 0:28:07.359 had in high school and college, what do you think 0:28:07.480 --> 0:28:10.080 what kind of damage could Eric Dickerson have done with 0:28:10.320 --> 0:28:14.280 n I l you already had the transam, it would have. 0:28:14.280 --> 0:28:20.639 Been no transamb ituro have been Billy, thank you, Ben. 0:28:22.440 --> 0:28:23.760 You know, because you're a kids. You want to you 0:28:23.760 --> 0:28:24.880 want to fast what they're doing. 0:28:24.880 --> 0:28:27.040 Now you've seen somebod these recruits, the kids up and 0:28:27.080 --> 0:28:28.560 it's just all thorns laid. 0:28:28.320 --> 0:28:29.960 Out of I'm like, come on, man, I can't. 0:28:30.200 --> 0:28:33.359 It's with farriris and stuff. Man, it's been because I 0:28:33.400 --> 0:28:35.359 think about it. I mean, and I forget this. I 0:28:35.400 --> 0:28:37.239 was the number one recruit in the nation coming out 0:28:37.280 --> 0:28:40.160 of this little time. Oh i'd have been cleaning up. 0:28:40.200 --> 0:28:43.080 I got a question though, because I feel like and 0:28:43.320 --> 0:28:46.040 and I put a lot of thought. I feel like 0:28:46.160 --> 0:28:49.480 this generation gets everything we had to work so hard for. 0:28:50.240 --> 0:28:52.080 To me at a young age, you're naturally going to 0:28:52.120 --> 0:28:53.920 take your foot off the gas at some point as 0:28:53.920 --> 0:29:00.080 far as desire, dedication, focus is it you feel the same. 0:29:00.000 --> 0:29:01.560 Feel the same way. I feel exact same way. 0:29:01.600 --> 0:29:04.479 The thing is is I think about myself when I 0:29:04.600 --> 0:29:07.560 was in c I didn't know how, but I said, 0:29:08.080 --> 0:29:10.600 this is my My daddy passed away when I was 0:29:10.960 --> 0:29:13.800 my junior year. I always said that I wanted my 0:29:13.840 --> 0:29:15.600 mom to have a house like the white people had. 0:29:16.160 --> 0:29:17.840 I want to have cars like the white people had. 0:29:18.120 --> 0:29:19.400 I didn't know how I was going to get that, 0:29:20.000 --> 0:29:23.120 but you know, playing sports was my avenue and I 0:29:23.160 --> 0:29:25.040 didn't know it, you know, really I didn't see it 0:29:25.120 --> 0:29:27.880 like that. But it worked out. And then right, a 0:29:27.880 --> 0:29:30.040 lot of these kids stuff it's given to them so early. 0:29:30.440 --> 0:29:32.040 They don't have. They don't have. They don't know what 0:29:32.120 --> 0:29:35.080 adversity is. They don't know what it's like to not have. 0:29:35.160 --> 0:29:37.160 You know, they got us. They got a room full 0:29:37.200 --> 0:29:40.040 of tennis shoes where I had a pair of school shoes, 0:29:40.640 --> 0:29:42.480 a pair of tennis shoes and the past shoes go 0:29:42.520 --> 0:29:44.560 to church, you know, and that's what you had. 0:29:44.560 --> 0:29:45.120 I want to get out. 0:29:45.160 --> 0:29:47.120 I hid my church shoes one time because I didn't 0:29:47.120 --> 0:29:48.719 want to go to church, and my mom we look 0:29:48.800 --> 0:29:51.080 for us. I put them tennis shoes on, yeah, and 0:29:51.160 --> 0:29:51.520 found them. 0:29:54.320 --> 0:29:57.080 Take your school shoes off, right, take your school shoes off, 0:30:00.080 --> 0:30:01.400 buy your fresh pass shoes. 0:30:01.680 --> 0:30:04.240 You went them to school and playing again in the games, 0:30:04.240 --> 0:30:05.560 and you only had one path. 0:30:05.600 --> 0:30:07.800 But you couldn't wear them outside when you got home 0:30:07.840 --> 0:30:10.520 though I know we couldn't. You can wear them easy, 0:30:10.560 --> 0:30:15.560 barefoot or some other shit. Right after you left left SMU, 0:30:15.880 --> 0:30:18.960 the NCAA sanctioned them with the death penalty for legal 0:30:18.960 --> 0:30:21.680 payment to players, effectively shutting down the program for two years. 0:30:21.760 --> 0:30:25.120 How did that make you feel? Obviously it's so prevalent 0:30:25.200 --> 0:30:27.400 now and really a lot of other schools were doing it. 0:30:27.440 --> 0:30:29.520 They came down really hard on you guys. But looking 0:30:29.560 --> 0:30:31.640 back on that, what are your thoughts on that? 0:30:31.720 --> 0:30:35.320 Funny you say, because you said they put it on. 0:30:36.040 --> 0:30:38.480 Everybody always says that I had something to do with 0:30:38.520 --> 0:30:40.560 me and Craig. We were gone, we were in the program. 0:30:40.600 --> 0:30:44.400 I'm glad you didn't say that we were out of college. 0:30:44.640 --> 0:30:47.040 I think it was wrong. First of all, when which 0:30:47.120 --> 0:30:50.280 first started back in nineteen seventy nine, when I got 0:30:50.400 --> 0:30:53.440 recruited by a senior. The problem was is that Estimate 0:30:53.560 --> 0:30:56.200 was a smaller school, and we had the best recruiting 0:30:56.240 --> 0:30:58.440 class in the nation that year. We had like we 0:30:58.480 --> 0:31:00.400 call the blue chips. We had like twelve chips and 0:31:00.440 --> 0:31:03.640 went and people couldn't understand it. Even though my freshman 0:31:03.680 --> 0:31:05.560 year we struggled. We we I think with five and six, 0:31:05.600 --> 0:31:07.360 then with nine and three, ten and one and ten 0:31:07.520 --> 0:31:11.000 eleven oh one. So all of a sudden we start 0:31:11.040 --> 0:31:14.120 winning other like Texas and then they were pissed. You know, 0:31:14.240 --> 0:31:16.280 you ain't supposed to beat us. You're supposed to beat us, 0:31:16.680 --> 0:31:18.920 and that's what brought the attention to us. We won't forget. 0:31:18.920 --> 0:31:21.560 We beat Texas my sophomore year, we beat them twenty 0:31:21.600 --> 0:31:23.600 to six in Austin. They beat it the hell out 0:31:23.600 --> 0:31:25.440 of us. In my freshman year, beat us thirty six. 0:31:26.040 --> 0:31:27.520 The next year they were number two in the nation. 0:31:28.040 --> 0:31:29.400 We were six and oh there we were six and 0:31:29.440 --> 0:31:31.160 oh but you know that freshman year we got a 0:31:31.200 --> 0:31:33.360 chance to grow. We're going to beat them in Austin. 0:31:33.880 --> 0:31:37.280 Monday morning, the n C double is at school. Ain't 0:31:37.320 --> 0:31:40.000 no way, yep, ain't no way, no way. We had 0:31:40.000 --> 0:31:41.880 to take a soft probation. The next some kind of 0:31:41.880 --> 0:31:44.600 probation we had to. We won the conference, but we 0:31:44.600 --> 0:31:46.840 had to. We couldn't be on television that year. The 0:31:46.840 --> 0:31:48.520 next year we wanted the conference again. And it just 0:31:48.520 --> 0:31:50.959 brought it brought all this attention to a smaller school. 0:31:51.400 --> 0:31:53.840 And that's just how it was back in those days. 0:31:53.880 --> 0:31:55.960 I mean, man, and it was everybody was doing it. 0:31:56.120 --> 0:31:57.440 I mean, we knew whatever the other We know what 0:31:57.480 --> 0:31:59.120 they were getting it. At the end, we knew what 0:31:59.120 --> 0:32:01.160 they were getting in Texas. But it was different because 0:32:01.240 --> 0:32:04.240 it was smaller, smaller school. They don't want the smaller school, 0:32:04.240 --> 0:32:05.560 just like now, they don't want the smaller schools in 0:32:05.560 --> 0:32:06.480 the championship game. 0:32:06.920 --> 0:32:10.320 School big question, maybe the biggest question don't don't was 0:32:10.360 --> 0:32:11.520 your curl wet or. 0:32:15.040 --> 0:32:18.400 Look at that thing right there I signed, is glistening? 0:32:19.320 --> 0:32:22.400 I know you had the head band. No, that was 0:32:22.440 --> 0:32:27.840 Walter with the head band. You don't neck roll glasses 0:32:28.280 --> 0:32:32.840 and goggles in the day. It was it wet or dry? 0:32:33.040 --> 0:32:35.160 It was was it was when I played, it was 0:32:35.240 --> 0:32:40.240 driving the goggles by or tryfocals. 0:32:39.560 --> 0:32:43.600 Bro No, it was just regular glass. Okay, when I 0:32:43.640 --> 0:32:46.040 took them glasses off. One time I tried to prescription 0:32:46.240 --> 0:32:50.440 what description? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I tried to play not 0:32:50.560 --> 0:32:52.760 without them. I tried to play with contacts in one game. 0:32:52.800 --> 0:32:54.880 I said, we gonna try to contact and I said, 0:32:54.880 --> 0:32:57.200 we're gonna put that. We have the goggles on the sideline. 0:32:58.040 --> 0:33:01.200 First hit popped out out. I had to go to 0:33:01.200 --> 0:33:02.360 the side and get the god goes back. 0:33:02.520 --> 0:33:05.760 Yeah. I couldn't play without him. But the wet curl, 0:33:05.800 --> 0:33:09.040 that was the thing back then. Jerry was like, I said, 0:33:09.240 --> 0:33:12.760 if you have a sweet curl, though curls for the 0:33:12.760 --> 0:33:14.840 girl walk around with a tiler. 0:33:19.600 --> 0:33:21.440 That's how Yeah, that's where my dad ship was he 0:33:21.480 --> 0:33:23.040 used to walk around with the tailer around his neck, 0:33:23.200 --> 0:33:24.360 wouldn't get on his work shirt. 0:33:24.800 --> 0:33:26.280 What was the story behind the neck row. 0:33:26.840 --> 0:33:28.560 The neck ro? You know what the neck row was. 0:33:28.720 --> 0:33:32.040 It was just a look, you know what, it's part 0:33:32.080 --> 0:33:33.560 of my swag. I gotta get I gotta get my 0:33:33.600 --> 0:33:35.800 boy Craig James cred for this. He wore a neckro 0:33:35.960 --> 0:33:38.880 in college. I'm like, I mean high school, Like. 0:33:38.880 --> 0:33:41.160 I like that neckro make you look bigger to you 0:33:41.240 --> 0:33:42.120 was already big too. 0:33:42.560 --> 0:33:44.040 I tried it, you know, they had it. I'm like, 0:33:44.040 --> 0:33:46.920 I can't this thing off tighten up. So I had 0:33:47.320 --> 0:33:49.320 pulled it out, had drilled hole through my past. I 0:33:49.360 --> 0:33:52.720 get tied down, tied down the back, cut my jerrys 0:33:52.720 --> 0:33:53.240 down the middle. 0:33:53.240 --> 0:33:58.640 I'm like, this looks That's how I went. I went 0:33:58.640 --> 0:34:00.840 in the neck ro. Did it? Did it help with 0:34:00.880 --> 0:34:05.360 the collisions and all that? It was strictly. 0:34:07.200 --> 0:34:08.719 We talked a lot about the NBA, how it was 0:34:08.760 --> 0:34:10.279 in the eighties, and we know about how it was 0:34:10.360 --> 0:34:12.440 drugs and a lot of stuff going on when they 0:34:12.520 --> 0:34:14.400 was trying to find their foot and what was the 0:34:14.400 --> 0:34:16.000 thing like in the eighties in the. 0:34:16.120 --> 0:34:19.360 NFL steroids, how the guy's six steroids. I mean, I 0:34:19.400 --> 0:34:21.719 didn't take no steroid, didn't need no steroids. But and 0:34:21.760 --> 0:34:24.160 the thing is, let me tell you something, Man, when 0:34:24.160 --> 0:34:28.279 you hit one of them guys the steroids, I won't forget. 0:34:28.280 --> 0:34:29.440 I hit the guy I can't think his name for 0:34:29.480 --> 0:34:32.440 this New Orleans Saints. I hit him in the thigh 0:34:32.600 --> 0:34:34.560 and it was like hitting this marble table. I hit 0:34:34.640 --> 0:34:36.040 him and I slid down. 0:34:36.200 --> 0:34:40.400 I'm like, I'm like damn. 0:34:40.480 --> 0:34:43.560 I'm like, I'm thinking I'm tripping really like, man, this 0:34:43.640 --> 0:34:46.800 man is hard. Then I tried to block him. He 0:34:46.800 --> 0:34:49.480 can rush, he's a defense. He got knocked my hands 0:34:49.480 --> 0:34:57.040 passed the quarter. I'm like, oh, this is unnatural. Some 0:34:57.120 --> 0:34:59.439 of the players, I said, you know the Jews, I'm 0:34:59.440 --> 0:35:01.920 like what juice is because you know, I didn't even 0:35:01.920 --> 0:35:05.160 know what steroids was back. I didn't think about steroids. Like, 0:35:05.320 --> 0:35:08.160 I'm like, I'm like red, I said, man, she hard 0:35:08.200 --> 0:35:10.319 as a rock. Yeah, it was, it was. It was 0:35:10.360 --> 0:35:12.839 really prevalent. They would do that. You see, guys had 0:35:12.840 --> 0:35:14.600 the on some of my teammates. 0:35:14.600 --> 0:35:17.359 They had the locker locker because it wasn't legal at 0:35:17.360 --> 0:35:17.880 that point. 0:35:17.760 --> 0:35:20.120 Right, it was, it was, It wasn't They weren't checking 0:35:20.120 --> 0:35:22.560 for wasn't checking for it. This one guy on the coast, 0:35:22.560 --> 0:35:23.920 I won't say his name, I know and you know 0:35:24.080 --> 0:35:26.120 he was. We played in the Pro Bowl and he 0:35:26.200 --> 0:35:29.360 was offensive lineman. Brother, he's on the juice, but he 0:35:29.440 --> 0:35:31.800 was Reggie White wasn't on the juice. Now, Reggie was strong. 0:35:32.239 --> 0:35:34.920 Never forget it. We ran a draw play, but I 0:35:34.960 --> 0:35:40.400 sat behind the quarterback. Reggie hit this guard hit him, 0:35:40.760 --> 0:35:43.920 picked him up in the air and threw him into me. 0:35:44.760 --> 0:35:47.480 I'm like, damn, I said, the juice ain't helping. 0:35:47.280 --> 0:35:47.560 Him with. 0:35:49.560 --> 0:35:52.160 Can you elaborate on Reggie White? Obviously, rest in peace? 0:35:52.200 --> 0:35:53.919 One of the greatest of all times. We just don't 0:35:53.960 --> 0:35:55.400 hear enough about his greatness. 0:35:55.480 --> 0:35:58.040 And Reggie White was a great first he's a great 0:35:58.080 --> 0:36:00.680 human being, such a nice guy. But he was a 0:36:00.719 --> 0:36:04.520 he hits you, God, bless you, God bless you. I mean, 0:36:04.840 --> 0:36:07.960 he was. He was a beast man. He was you know, 0:36:08.000 --> 0:36:10.000 her mind kind of reminds me of Reggie White. Was 0:36:10.040 --> 0:36:13.520 Aaron Donald, but Reggie was bigger. Reggie was big. Gray 0:36:13.520 --> 0:36:15.840 had long arms. You know why, nothing on his arms, 0:36:16.120 --> 0:36:20.800 played every down. Was nothing fancy about him. Just a tough, 0:36:21.239 --> 0:36:24.160 real football player. If I tell these young kids. You 0:36:24.160 --> 0:36:27.000 want to look at a defensive lineman, look at Reggie 0:36:27.000 --> 0:36:29.680 White and look at Aaron Donald them too, man, I 0:36:29.680 --> 0:36:31.640 mean Aaron Donald's like a Reggie White type. 0:36:32.040 --> 0:36:33.640 Number two pick in the draft. Talked to us about 0:36:33.640 --> 0:36:34.760 the signing bonus situation. 0:36:34.920 --> 0:36:38.200 My sign and bonus was six hundred thousand dollars. I 0:36:38.239 --> 0:36:40.200 got a six hundred thousand dollars signed bonus. I was 0:36:40.320 --> 0:36:44.680 behind John that way, but it was supposed to be 0:36:44.719 --> 0:36:45.560 a forgivable loan. 0:36:46.560 --> 0:36:47.279 That's how it set up. 0:36:47.320 --> 0:36:49.160 So did they let you know up front with that 0:36:49.239 --> 0:36:50.479 small writing, did you. 0:36:50.560 --> 0:36:53.279 Man, you know, think about it? Didn't know? You know, 0:36:53.360 --> 0:36:57.439 you know, you know absolutely no. I just see them dollars. Yeah, 0:36:57.520 --> 0:37:01.920 see need that You say, you know one hundred thousand? What? Yeah? 0:37:01.960 --> 0:37:04.200 So I just signed over six hundred thousand dollars signing 0:37:04.239 --> 0:37:06.319 bonus and I won't forget my agent he said, look, 0:37:06.520 --> 0:37:08.960 it's a it's a don'ta be a forgivable belong You 0:37:09.000 --> 0:37:10.680 ain't have to pay it back. And he said, he said, 0:37:10.840 --> 0:37:12.680 he said, from the next contract, they just you know, 0:37:12.760 --> 0:37:13.879 you don't have to worry about it. 0:37:13.920 --> 0:37:15.040 What never happened like that? 0:37:15.520 --> 0:37:18.560 So when I got traded to the Colts, and the 0:37:18.560 --> 0:37:20.600 coach gave me a five hundred thousand dollars time. So 0:37:20.600 --> 0:37:23.000 I went from making basically my base salary with the 0:37:23.120 --> 0:37:26.160 with the Rams all together, it was like two two 0:37:26.239 --> 0:37:28.120 fifty on the high. Coach gave me a signed the 0:37:28.160 --> 0:37:30.640 mostly five hundred. They gave me a base salary of 0:37:30.719 --> 0:37:33.520 one point four. Man, I was making some real money then. 0:37:34.120 --> 0:37:37.000 So I took my signing bonus and gave it back 0:37:37.040 --> 0:37:39.040 to the Ram, getting my signing bonus back, which I 0:37:39.040 --> 0:37:41.359 probably shouldn't have, but I was so pissed at them, man, 0:37:41.520 --> 0:37:43.880 And I mean nothing like I said, I mean, I 0:37:44.000 --> 0:37:44.959 like to be a man of my word. 0:37:45.120 --> 0:37:47.080 Yeah, I like I was just done with just done 0:37:47.120 --> 0:37:47.279 with it. 0:37:47.600 --> 0:37:50.000 You had that multiple times due to disputes with the 0:37:50.080 --> 0:37:53.120 Rams management overpaid. At what point were you playing under 0:37:53.120 --> 0:37:55.759 the rookie deal while being the league's leading Russia? Right, 0:37:56.280 --> 0:37:57.279 I played on a rookie deal. 0:37:57.360 --> 0:38:01.319 Let me see my first in my third year, I 0:38:01.360 --> 0:38:03.439 had I think I had one or two years left 0:38:03.440 --> 0:38:06.440 on my contract. I think maybe one year left. They 0:38:06.440 --> 0:38:08.960 didn't want to redo it. They don't want to redo it, 0:38:09.080 --> 0:38:11.160 and I held out. Then they gave me. Then they 0:38:11.160 --> 0:38:13.960 did redo it, and I made look you know. I 0:38:14.000 --> 0:38:17.640 kept saying, pay me like the quarterbacks. Keep me a 0:38:17.680 --> 0:38:21.359 million five, a million two, I said, even a million dollars. Now, 0:38:21.880 --> 0:38:24.359 I wouldn't would talk to the germ manager, John Shaw. 0:38:24.400 --> 0:38:26.279 I'll never get it. I went and met with him. 0:38:26.520 --> 0:38:28.479 Think about this, How long would it take a start 0:38:28.520 --> 0:38:31.239 player to meet with the general manager football basketball team? 0:38:31.680 --> 0:38:34.160 Like that? Took me weeks to meet with him. Take 0:38:34.200 --> 0:38:35.080 me weeks to meet with him. 0:38:35.239 --> 0:38:38.279 Finally when I met with him, Uh, John, were cool 0:38:38.320 --> 0:38:41.879 today after you know, some years. I met with him 0:38:42.200 --> 0:38:43.759 and I said, John, I said, Man, I said, my 0:38:43.800 --> 0:38:44.640 contract is bad. 0:38:44.719 --> 0:38:44.879 Man. 0:38:44.920 --> 0:38:46.440 He said, Eric, you know you got a new deal. 0:38:46.520 --> 0:38:48.879 I said, but it ain't no good. I said, y'all 0:38:48.920 --> 0:38:50.840 know it's no good. I said, I'm doing most of 0:38:50.880 --> 0:38:53.680 the doing. Most I'm doing. I'm in the office. So 0:38:53.880 --> 0:38:55.080 and I didn't like to say it, Ja, but I 0:38:55.120 --> 0:38:57.400 did so. Matter of fact, this guy gave him the scenario. 0:38:57.560 --> 0:38:59.360 It's eighty six, I said, I let the league in 0:38:59.400 --> 0:39:01.920 Russian last ye. No you didn't, Walter Payton. He said, well, 0:39:01.960 --> 0:39:04.200 that says his boy. No you didn't, Walter, I said, no, 0:39:04.239 --> 0:39:07.439 I live to at eighteen twenty one. No, I said, yes, 0:39:07.480 --> 0:39:09.919 I did. I left the league, goes get his book. 0:39:10.120 --> 0:39:13.239 I want to kick him in his ass. Oh you did, 0:39:13.440 --> 0:39:15.280 I said, yeah, you I led the league in Russian 0:39:15.360 --> 0:39:17.160 last year. So I said, this is what I do. 0:39:17.800 --> 0:39:20.480 I said, this is how much confidence I had in myself. 0:39:21.000 --> 0:39:24.560 I said, if I have fifteen hundred yards or more, 0:39:25.280 --> 0:39:28.600 you pay me the million five If I don't. If 0:39:28.640 --> 0:39:30.840 I go under that, then I just I said, I 0:39:30.880 --> 0:39:32.759 go year by year. You just got to goat to 0:39:32.760 --> 0:39:36.759 my old contract. He said, no, We're not gonna do 0:39:37.400 --> 0:39:40.799 think about that. I bet on myself playing football. So 0:39:40.960 --> 0:39:42.520 that way, I just knew. I knew it was gonna 0:39:42.520 --> 0:39:43.080 be a bad. 0:39:42.920 --> 0:39:44.200 Deal with him, Walter Payton. 0:39:45.440 --> 0:39:47.200 I want to talk about his greatness, but also I 0:39:47.239 --> 0:39:49.520 want to talk about and is this something you got 0:39:49.640 --> 0:39:51.920 to share? Obviously everything is very public knowledge. What kind 0:39:51.920 --> 0:39:52.840 of money was he making? 0:39:53.000 --> 0:39:55.120 Well, I can tell you when I was, but I 0:39:55.160 --> 0:39:57.759 was playing, I was like the thirty to forties. 0:39:57.560 --> 0:39:59.680 Highest played player at the league thirty yef yeah. 0:39:59.760 --> 0:40:02.359 Yeah, yeah, like the thirties I played player in the league. 0:40:02.640 --> 0:40:06.640 Watcher was probably making like eight seventy five nine hundred. 0:40:06.960 --> 0:40:07.160 Yeah. 0:40:07.480 --> 0:40:11.240 I mean, I'm gonta forget my friend Roy Green receiver 0:40:11.480 --> 0:40:14.840 for the Cardinals. Ro was a great player. And I 0:40:14.920 --> 0:40:17.040 called Russell. I said, man, we're talking about it. I said, man, 0:40:17.239 --> 0:40:19.040 so much money you make? What I said, idn't mean 0:40:19.080 --> 0:40:21.480 to be great case I make six, I say six 0:40:21.600 --> 0:40:24.359 seventy five, Like damn, man, I'm like, no, I don't 0:40:24.360 --> 0:40:26.279 mean it like that. I said, Man, I'm over here 0:40:26.320 --> 0:40:29.719 making two fucking fifty. Man, I said, this is ridiculous. 0:40:30.120 --> 0:40:31.320 It was. It was horrible. 0:40:31.360 --> 0:40:33.400 I mean it really was. But the thing was is 0:40:33.480 --> 0:40:36.680 that they builified me. They made me like, you know, 0:40:36.760 --> 0:40:40.080 it's always funny how we're the greedy athletes, especially the 0:40:40.160 --> 0:40:40.880 black athlete. 0:40:41.120 --> 0:40:41.279 You know. 0:40:41.320 --> 0:40:44.200 I hate to say it, and I just said, white guys, 0:40:44.400 --> 0:40:46.040 they don't have to hold out. If you ever heard 0:40:46.040 --> 0:40:47.480 of a white quarterback have a hold of that, it 0:40:47.520 --> 0:40:50.880 don't have no, it don't. It does not happen. The 0:40:50.960 --> 0:40:53.000 black quarterbacks have to hold lot. And I'm not making 0:40:53.040 --> 0:40:56.800 a race thing. It's just facts. It's all facts, you know, Brothers, 0:40:57.120 --> 0:40:59.279 we have to hold out. Make us look bad with 0:40:59.480 --> 0:41:02.880 especially back then because the media controlled everything. When at 0:41:02.920 --> 0:41:04.759 the Rams, the Rams made me look like I was 0:41:05.160 --> 0:41:07.759 money hungry. I wasn't a team player. I didn't want 0:41:07.760 --> 0:41:09.840 to play hard, all that kind of stuff, which was 0:41:09.880 --> 0:41:12.239 all a bunch of bs. And it's funny how time 0:41:12.360 --> 0:41:15.920 goes on you meet people this Eric, man, you are nothing. 0:41:15.760 --> 0:41:18.399 Like this said, I said, no, but it's a different 0:41:18.480 --> 0:41:18.680 day that. 0:41:18.760 --> 0:41:22.480 I mean, there wasn't these type of platforms, right, So 0:41:22.640 --> 0:41:24.120 what they said was the gospel. 0:41:24.280 --> 0:41:26.320 That was it, and people then people had this, but 0:41:26.400 --> 0:41:27.680 it's in the paper. It's got you got to be 0:41:28.280 --> 0:41:29.799 It's got to be true. You gotta be true because 0:41:29.800 --> 0:41:32.000 I used to say what Trump says. Now I said 0:41:32.000 --> 0:41:33.960 the fake news, I call it fight fake news. 0:41:34.000 --> 0:41:34.480 They line. 0:41:35.080 --> 0:41:36.920 Matter of fact, it was a guy named Rick Riley. 0:41:37.360 --> 0:41:39.840 Did you did an article in Sports Illustrated, came to 0:41:39.920 --> 0:41:42.719 my house, stayed in my house, travel with us for 0:41:42.840 --> 0:41:46.640 a week on the team, and Indianapolis wrote a crazy 0:41:46.800 --> 0:41:48.960 article about me, made me seem like I have was 0:41:48.960 --> 0:41:52.920 a psychopath. I I fed my dogs and I had ridwild, 0:41:53.000 --> 0:41:57.000 fed my dog's gun powder, you know, just crazy crazy stuff. 0:41:57.280 --> 0:42:00.839 I called him man, I said, man, what the mm hmm? 0:42:01.680 --> 0:42:03.520 I thought it was good. I told him, man, I 0:42:03.560 --> 0:42:06.560 will whoop your ass. Man. I still like to whoop 0:42:06.600 --> 0:42:10.319 his ads right now. Like I said, what they used 0:42:10.360 --> 0:42:13.200 to be was the word. But back to sweetness. Man, 0:42:13.400 --> 0:42:15.080 Walter was a good guy. Man. 0:42:15.120 --> 0:42:17.759 I won't forget we played them. We played them. I 0:42:17.800 --> 0:42:21.160 think it's my rookie season. And I was Walter Payton fans. 0:42:20.800 --> 0:42:21.799 A little bit older than how many. 0:42:22.400 --> 0:42:25.000 Was about four or five five years older than five 0:42:25.200 --> 0:42:27.480 five years old than me. So I'm a little bit 0:42:27.520 --> 0:42:31.360 older than that. But somewhere around there we playing the Bears, 0:42:31.680 --> 0:42:35.200 and I won't get John Robinson say, look during the 0:42:35.280 --> 0:42:37.839 defense we're in the team meeting. He said, if anybody, 0:42:37.920 --> 0:42:40.000 and this is John Robinson, rookie coach, I'm a rookie. 0:42:40.000 --> 0:42:44.040 He said, any defensive players hit Walter Playton, Peyton Lake, 0:42:44.360 --> 0:42:45.080 take a cheap shot. 0:42:45.120 --> 0:42:48.719 We're gonna find you like what they're gonna find. I 0:42:48.760 --> 0:42:51.000 will play. You're gonna find them like okay, Like damn. 0:42:51.000 --> 0:42:53.520 I respect then, So I didn't. 0:42:53.600 --> 0:42:55.120 I went to meeting, but I want to wait after 0:42:55.160 --> 0:42:57.320 the game the meeting and that day I think I 0:42:57.400 --> 0:42:59.600 had one hundred and forty nine yards in two touchdowns, 0:43:00.480 --> 0:43:02.880 and uh, we beat him. And I walk up to 0:43:03.000 --> 0:43:04.440 him and I put my hand. I gotta I got 0:43:04.520 --> 0:43:06.160 a big picture of me and him in my office, 0:43:06.600 --> 0:43:08.440 and I said Eric Dickerson. He said, I know who 0:43:08.480 --> 0:43:10.839 you are, and I said, Man, I say I'm a fan. 0:43:10.920 --> 0:43:12.200 He said, he said I'm a fan too. 0:43:12.360 --> 0:43:15.719 Wow. Yeah, Barry sunders, Oh, Man, can't nobody run like Bear? 0:43:17.520 --> 0:43:21.879 You can't he like Curly? You know, like man? 0:43:22.520 --> 0:43:25.160 Nothing like him? I mean, I don't think you ever 0:43:25.200 --> 0:43:27.920 seen nobody like you. I mean people say, you know, 0:43:28.160 --> 0:43:28.879 I couldn't. 0:43:28.640 --> 0:43:30.600 Run like Bear. I have everybody out the on stop. 0:43:30.760 --> 0:43:34.120 Nobody could run like Derek carry big bag? I like him. 0:43:34.920 --> 0:43:36.680 How big is he? Forty two fifty? 0:43:38.520 --> 0:43:41.239 He sees about six four by two forty something like that. 0:43:41.360 --> 0:43:43.040 He's bigger than me, bigger than me because. 0:43:43.000 --> 0:43:46.120 Think about that, but not by much though, yeah, not 0:43:46.160 --> 0:43:46.640 about much. 0:43:46.719 --> 0:43:48.560 But yeah, he's a big bag man. I mean when 0:43:48.560 --> 0:43:54.600 I when I met him, like, damn you put them 0:43:54.640 --> 0:43:57.239 and say you put them pads on? You know, it 0:43:57.400 --> 0:43:59.600 takes it up up, you know, a couple of couple 0:43:59.600 --> 0:44:02.920 of levels. I mean, because we played the Lions when 0:44:02.960 --> 0:44:05.120 I was a rookie and I jogged on the field 0:44:05.160 --> 0:44:08.759 by some defensive backs. dB said, damn that like a 0:44:08.880 --> 0:44:11.279 defensive lineman, you know, And I was, I was, I 0:44:11.400 --> 0:44:16.040 was a big backback. Emmy Smith got all the got 0:44:16.080 --> 0:44:19.160 all the records. Man, I love him. Good guy, great guy, 0:44:19.360 --> 0:44:22.279 great player. Imm It was not fast nothing in high 0:44:22.480 --> 0:44:24.400 in college. I never I mean because people say, I 0:44:24.400 --> 0:44:25.840 ain't gonna be that guy said man. I said, he 0:44:25.920 --> 0:44:28.839 runs tough. He a tough player. I kept saying, if 0:44:28.880 --> 0:44:30.600 he gets on the right team, he'd be able to 0:44:30.640 --> 0:44:31.040 do it right. 0:44:31.800 --> 0:44:37.680 He got line and the quarterback god and weapons and ye. 0:44:37.920 --> 0:44:40.160 I don't think people understand how important it is if 0:44:40.200 --> 0:44:43.160 you're a running back to have a line and a quarterback. 0:44:43.239 --> 0:44:45.799 Oh Man, you don't. People don't. People don't really, they 0:44:45.840 --> 0:44:48.400 don't understand. I don't care how great you are. You 0:44:48.520 --> 0:44:50.960 could be the fastest, the biggest, but if you ain't 0:44:51.000 --> 0:44:53.279 got them guys up front, you might get away with 0:44:53.320 --> 0:44:55.279 it and have a quarterback. But if you ain't got 0:44:55.280 --> 0:44:58.000 the guys up front, you ain't going nowhere because you 0:44:58.080 --> 0:45:01.000 gotta stand them guys with that pros too. He had 0:45:01.040 --> 0:45:03.040 all Pro Bowls on the line. That's that that that 0:45:03.280 --> 0:45:05.799 that is their job. And you said that people. People 0:45:05.840 --> 0:45:08.880 don't realize, you know how tough it is when you 0:45:09.040 --> 0:45:12.000 don't have office. When I got the Indie Brother, it was. 0:45:13.920 --> 0:45:16.279 Emmit was good at waiting to them holes come yeah, 0:45:16.640 --> 0:45:18.120 find im gonna hit them hard too. 0:45:18.800 --> 0:45:21.440 What running backs you like today? Most definitely Derrick Henry. 0:45:21.800 --> 0:45:23.640 Like Derrick Henry. I think he's my favoritecause it's a 0:45:23.640 --> 0:45:26.759 big back like me. I like sayque now and I'd 0:45:26.840 --> 0:45:29.239 liked it before. I just thought he never would be 0:45:29.400 --> 0:45:31.920 the guy that he could have been playing with the Giants. 0:45:32.400 --> 0:45:35.200 I love watching him play. He's exciting me think, you know, 0:45:35.360 --> 0:45:36.239 thinking about it, it's not a. 0:45:36.320 --> 0:45:39.560 Lot of back like it was because Bell cow like, 0:45:39.719 --> 0:45:41.640 like I said, they've been doing it by committee. 0:45:41.239 --> 0:45:43.279 Now called we're called called feature backs. 0:45:43.560 --> 0:45:45.320 You know how feature back you gotta you gotta know 0:45:45.400 --> 0:45:48.239 you committed, got the rotation like Ava Kamara not to 0:45:48.280 --> 0:45:50.360 get back, you know. But you know it's just not 0:45:50.440 --> 0:45:52.880 it's not like you can say like you said in 0:45:53.040 --> 0:45:56.160 my area you said, Walter Payton, Marcus Sallam O J Anderson, 0:45:56.200 --> 0:45:57.800 I mean you could just go down the line and 0:45:57.920 --> 0:46:00.359 running back because the team need a running back. Now 0:46:00.400 --> 0:46:05.000 you got to sit down. Well, yeah, but they black committee. 0:46:05.160 --> 0:46:06.680 It's a different era also too. 0:46:06.760 --> 0:46:08.919 Can you speak to the importance of the fullback because 0:46:08.920 --> 0:46:11.600 the fullback is almost not very important. 0:46:11.640 --> 0:46:13.520 I don't see why don't let it know, I mean 0:46:13.960 --> 0:46:17.799 fullback blows open holes for the running back. It's very 0:46:17.880 --> 0:46:20.680 few teams. When I saw San Francisco do it, you know, 0:46:20.880 --> 0:46:24.680 last year and the year before. Man's important. That's that's important. 0:46:24.800 --> 0:46:26.600 Quick hitters. First thing to come to mind. Let us 0:46:26.640 --> 0:46:29.160 know one album you can listen to with no skips. 0:46:29.480 --> 0:46:31.759 Oh man, I know my favorite. I just said this 0:46:31.840 --> 0:46:37.680 the other day. Man, I like him. Yeah, yeah, I 0:46:37.920 --> 0:46:43.759 see that when I had to get I had to 0:46:43.840 --> 0:46:48.879 get up. I can see that. But I can see that. Yes, 0:46:49.120 --> 0:46:53.359 I love the camera pants. What song would you play 0:46:53.480 --> 0:46:54.840 over your career mixtape? 0:46:54.880 --> 0:46:54.920 Like? 0:46:55.000 --> 0:46:57.719 What'll be the soundtrack to your mixtape? They call them highlights? 0:46:58.000 --> 0:47:03.000 Oh man, let me think next. I saw I saw 0:47:03.120 --> 0:47:07.920 one that did. It's simply the best that was. They 0:47:07.960 --> 0:47:09.000 had a highlight of me with it. 0:47:09.120 --> 0:47:13.920 I'm like, oh, that's sweet than anyone. 0:47:14.480 --> 0:47:19.400 I'm gonna give you a fun one right here. One quarterback, 0:47:20.160 --> 0:47:23.080 one receiver, and one offensive line. And you wish an 0:47:23.120 --> 0:47:25.640 offensive line as a whole, you wish you could have 0:47:25.640 --> 0:47:26.760 played with during your career. 0:47:26.719 --> 0:47:30.040 The Washington Redskins. Oh line line, I did love my 0:47:30.080 --> 0:47:36.520 offensive line, Washington Redskins. Joe Montana, You're not gonna believe 0:47:36.719 --> 0:47:37.920 my receiver. You probably won't. 0:47:38.840 --> 0:47:43.279 He Henryeller, come on, man number eighty, and he had 0:47:43.320 --> 0:47:44.239 a long one too, right. 0:47:45.680 --> 0:47:55.200 I heard Yeller yells, yeah, Henry Henry five dinner against 0:47:55.239 --> 0:47:56.720 that alive, Jesus. 0:47:57.760 --> 0:48:00.440 I love my dad to be there in my mom can. 0:48:01.080 --> 0:48:01.799 I like some of them. 0:48:02.040 --> 0:48:07.400 I likes some old like George Washington. 0:48:07.440 --> 0:48:09.080 I like to see what they're thinking. 0:48:09.920 --> 0:48:12.319 Yeah, wooden teeth. Actually they said it was slave teeth, 0:48:13.760 --> 0:48:17.839 slave teeth and book t Washington like that in your 0:48:17.920 --> 0:48:20.160 heyday because you had one of the best. Was there 0:48:20.160 --> 0:48:34.960 any curve you were envoul because this was I mean 0:48:35.080 --> 0:48:38.239 you Deon Sanders, who else, Dominique Wilkins, you guys, we 0:48:38.320 --> 0:48:39.480 got a chance to sit down with all. 0:48:39.520 --> 0:48:46.080 You'll all y'all have a legendary the Lakers. Yeah, like a. 0:48:47.719 --> 0:48:54.719 Bitch, don't call anymore like any curR your your a 0:48:54.840 --> 0:48:58.279 CS curl U my own curve. I'm saying you have 0:48:58.400 --> 0:48:59.120 one of the best effort. 0:48:59.120 --> 0:49:02.840 I take my own. Yeah. Hell yeah, childhood crush. I 0:49:03.000 --> 0:49:11.000 metter too. I knew, I knew it. I said it 0:49:11.080 --> 0:49:13.680 with you. Jackie Crow, funniest teammate you ever had. 0:49:14.400 --> 0:49:19.120 Kind of class. Were the team the coats. Yeah, on 0:49:19.200 --> 0:49:23.320 the Rams, it'd be Geary was Gary. Last thing funny 0:49:23.440 --> 0:49:25.520 is I don't know what. I can't think it's last night. 0:49:25.520 --> 0:49:30.040 It's the defensive back. Crazy funny, crazy funny. Yeah, Gary Green, 0:49:30.320 --> 0:49:30.799 Gary Green. 0:49:31.640 --> 0:49:33.319 If you could see one guess on All the Smoke, 0:49:33.360 --> 0:49:36.040 who would it be? But you have to help us 0:49:36.080 --> 0:49:37.320 get your answer. I means you got to go on 0:49:37.400 --> 0:49:43.080 that that rolodex of yours. You know one guess that's 0:49:43.520 --> 0:49:45.280 call ya go bears. 0:49:46.040 --> 0:49:49.640 Eric Man, we appreciate you again, huge fan in my household, 0:49:49.760 --> 0:49:51.920 and and and all the great things you did on 0:49:52.040 --> 0:49:54.080 the field. Man, We appreciate you sitting down with us 0:49:54.120 --> 0:49:54.879 and best of luck. 0:49:55.760 --> 0:49:58.719 Appreciate you man, Eric. 0:49:59.280 --> 0:50:01.120 You catch us on the All the Smoke YouTube and 0:50:01.200 --> 0:50:03.600 the Draft Kings Network. We'll see y'all next week, sir. 0:50:03.880 --> 0:50:06.000 Shout out to the Punk Brothers. We appreciate you guys 0:50:06.080 --> 0:50:07.399 for having us baby and the guests. 0:50:08.160 --> 0:50:08.680 My guys,