Eric Dickerson: Iconic Running Back, The Pony Express Scandal & Top RB's in NFL

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Eric Dickerson, The NFL's most iconic running back, joins The Pivot for a legendary conversation talking the Pony Express scandal, SMU's football death sentence, his NFL career and current running backs in the league today. The LA Rams hosted Channing, Fred and Ryan in the "Rams" Hollywood House for an evening of great conversation and memorable moments. Wasting no time, Ryan and Channing get right into Dickerson's days at SMU and the money scandals that followed him and his college teammates during that time and the infamous Trans Am story. Sharing what really transpired back then, Eric opens up about how all of that really played out and how it has affected his legacy. Fred talks the skill set of the NFL running back position during Eric's playing days and asks him who the #2 and #3 Rams running backs are in history and who the top 5 current backs today. Considering himself a Ram for life, the foursome discuss how Dickerson never wanted to play for another team, the current Rams roster with recent super bowl run and what really went on with the talked about ticket situation with Dickerson's seats. The Pivot Podcast releases new episodes on YouTube and all audio platforms every Tuesday at Noon eastern with special drops on Fridays at 3pm Eastern. Find exclusive Pivot merchandise and stay connected with us at https://www.pivotpodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 0:30Ryan Clark?

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• 1:12Ryan Clark?

  PrizePix is the best app for player props and also daily fantasy. Download the app, make your picks and make your money. It's PrizePix and the Pivot. Let's go. There he is, the OG.

• 1:25Speaker 02

  What's up, brother?

• 1:26Ryan Clark?

  What's up, brother? Man, thank you for being here, man. Yes, sir. I couldn't tackle you, Stan.

• 1:31Speaker 02

  Yo, what's up, boss? What's happening? You doing alright? Where am I sitting?

• 1:35Ryan Clark?

  He's still bigger than you, Fred.

• 1:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, he is, right?

• 2:00Ryan Clark?

  Eric Dickerson, you need no introduction. Welcome to the Pivot.

• 2:03Speaker 02

  Thanks, thanks, I appreciate it.

• 2:04Fred Taylor?

  The most iconic back ever in the history of the game.

• 2:07Speaker 02

  I don't know about that, you know.

• 2:08Fred Taylor?

  I mean, you were the only one that had, you had the goggles.

• 2:11Speaker 02

  I had the goggles.

• 2:12Fred Taylor?

  You had the neck roll.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  And the Jerry.

• 2:14Fred Taylor?

  And the Jerry curl. The Jerry curls, come on, man.

• 2:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, it's this stuff I wore. I mean, I, it just, you know, it wasn't nothing that I was trying to be cool or different. You know, I gotta say, the neck roll was kind of a, a touch that I gotta say, I, I took it from my boy Craig James. I mean, in college.

• 2:32Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 2:32Speaker 02

  And he had a neck roll. I'm like, I kinda like that neck roll. I never had one in high school, so I kinda took the neck roll and I, you know, kinda did my own twist, stretched it out and just made it look cool, like, like Superman. So that's why I was kinda wearing the neck roll.

• 2:44Fred Taylor?

  Serious question though, because I get sweaty in my eyes when I ain't have no hair.

• 2:50Channing Crowder?

  With the Jerry curls dripping?

• 2:51Fred Taylor?

  The activated, the oil sheet?

• 2:53Speaker 02

  No, it, never, never. I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you the problem is, cause I wore goggles.

• 2:58Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 2:58Speaker 02

  Man, they fogged up all this. I hated them things. But people thought, you know, I wanted just to be cool, but I hated them. I was always walking to, I always had a towel. I was walking to the line of scrimmage doing this, wiping them off. You know, it helped when guys are trying to poke in the eyes, cause it got a lot of that. Especially back in those days, you know, it was, it was really dirty football, but it was football. But, um, you know, those goggles were just part of the deal. But the Jerry curl, it was, it was what the Jerry curl was. You probably, you probably had S-curl or something like that?

• 3:23Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I definitely had an S-curl.

• 3:24Channing Crowder?

  You had S-curl, Freddie?

• 3:25Fred Taylor?

  Everybody had it.

• 3:26Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 3:26Fred Taylor?

  Everybody dipped and dabbed with the little S-curl juice.

• 3:29Channing Crowder?

  You know what I did? I did, I did a perv.

• 3:31Speaker 02

  The perv?

• 3:32Channing Crowder?

  I did a perv. I did, at the top, at the curly top. I thought I had good hair, like, I'll be sure. I tell you, them goggles wasn't sweet. I see you got glasses on now, like you have a visually impaired, but them goggles was sweet, bro.

• 3:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, I, I know the goggles didn't look good. And I, I didn't, I didn't like them. I mean, I didn't like wearing them. I mean, first when I first wore glasses, I had to wear my hot, my, my school glasses when I played, you know, in seventh, seventh grade and eighth grade, I had to wear my school glasses. And they were the brown, like the, the round horn ones, kinda ugly. And I'd come on the field with my head down, cause I hated them glasses. And they wasn't no sports glasses back then. And you know, if you, if you broke your glasses, you know, as a kid, and I was blind, it would take months. And you might get your glasses back in three months, so you had to be careful, but. I didn't like the glasses either, so don't think I thought they were cool.

• 4:18Ryan Clark?

  So ED, ED, you know what I mean? I skipped the part because I was so excited. This is the pivot. We need you to subscribe. We need you to like YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Our sponsors happy that. They would be very grateful, as we are. But you talking about not being able to see, not having vision. None of that showed up in your game, though.

• 4:40Speaker 02

  You know, people always say that, you know, guy, oh, he has great vision, you know? For a running back, it's not about the vision. It's about feel. It's just like a defensive back or receiver. It's about what you feel. Like when I'm playing, I could feel a guy coming here. And one thing I did have, I had great peripheral vision. I did a test on him. My peripheral vision was great. I just couldn't see straight ahead. That was the thing, you know? I could feel him. And I would make a cut because I felt him. Like, how'd you see him? I didn't see him, I felt him. You know, and you know I was on the football field. You know, guys, stuff happens quick. I mean, it's instinct. Sometimes you make the wrong decision, sometimes you make the right decision. I was fortunate sometimes to make the right decisions. And one thing was, see, I was big, I was 6'3", 225, and I was fast.

• 5:25Speaker 02

  I mean, I'm, you know, I always, I put my speed against anybody when I was younger. I mean, that was a big thing for me. And as you know, as a player, you know, you can, there's no substitute for speed. It's really not.

• 5:36Ryan Clark?

  Can't teach it.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  You can't teach it, especially if you're a football player. And I was a track guy, but I was a football player first.

• 5:42Ryan Clark?

  Well, you mentioned Craig James earlier. And, you know, we've seen now with Nick Saban recently coming out and talking about Texas A&M being the number one recruiting class because they paid all of their players through NIL. He also has mentioned Deion Sanders and them getting the number one player and using NILs to pay him. When you think about what happened to SMU with the death penalty to now where the game has moved and schools and teams and universities are using this to get players, what does that make you feel like?

• 6:21Speaker 02

  Man, that's a great question. You know, I've been frustrated for years, even when I got out of college, you know, how they treated the players. I mean, black, white, you know, it didn't make a difference. Because, you know, as a player, you don't look at the skin color. You're a player. We all on the same team. I just felt that players should have always gotten something. You know, you making the university all this money. First thing they'd say, well, you got a scholarship. Okay, we got a scholarship, but we still making the school billions of dollars. The NCAA billions of dollars is really what it comes down to. And I've always just felt that the players or the kids should share in that because, look, man, everybody's not gonna play pro football. Everybody not gonna be a pro basketball player. And, you know, you'd have other people say, well, you know, you can't, you, you, you, football players,

• 7:04Speaker 02

  y'all get this and, you know, and then basketball and, and baseball and the girl sports. I said, well, let me ask you a question. When's the last time you see a per, uh, a hundred thousand people come out to a swim match? Yeah. You don't see that. When that time you saw a hundred thousand people come to a baseball game? You don't see that. They come to football, they tailgate football. So I just think it's great because I think the players deserve it. You know, it gives them something. If they don't make it, it gives them something to have a start, a kickoff, you know, some kind of money to have. Because, look, I just say for me being black, we didn't have anything. I mean, we didn't, we didn't have any money. My, we were poor. I mean, I'm trying, the little bit of money that I got, I was sending my mom. I mean, and I think a lot of, a lot of guys, I was raising my great aunt, a lot of guys are feeling the same way. I'm just trying to help, you know, and, and in a sense, they vilify the young player. You're the young kid, we're kids.

• 7:49Speaker 02

  If, if you, if I, if it was a fifteen year old right now, sixteen year old, high school kid, and I say, look, son, I'm gonna give you five hundred dollars just for, just for playing a good game. You think he gonna say, oh, no, I can't take it. He gonna say, what? Right. Five hundred dollars? Yeah. Yeah, happy to take it. And that's what it was like back in those days.

• 8:06Channing Crowder?

  I wouldn't speak for anybody else, but I got all the thousand dollar handshake when I went on recruiting visits. So I ain't gonna call out each school. I went to Florida, but every school I went to, I get the handshake, you know, with, with the rack in it. You know what I'm saying? My mom got an Explorer. I don't know who gave it to her. You know what I'm saying? Let's be honest. But E, E D, you, you kept the G code so long. Cause every time people ask you about the Pony Express and the death penalty, you continue to keep the G code. I don't want you to tell on nobody, but I wanna ask you, why do you feel like you gotta stay in the G code where the world knows that E D got some bread from somebody?

• 8:49Speaker 02

  I'll say this much, you, one thing is, is. I'm big on loyalty. I'm big on loyalty. I mean, if I'm your guy, you know, you my guy, my, my, my guys, I'm big on that. I'm, you know, we, what, this is our, this is, this is our, it's our code. We, we keep this between us. And if you go back and look at guys at SMU, the guys that played with me, we didn't talk. I mean, we were happy for other guys. They got a car, man, let me see the car, man, let me, let me check it out. It wasn't, it wasn't no envy. I mean, that was, that was the big thing. I think, you know, as time went by, you know, you think about it, and I just say, what's the sense in telling? I mean, I mean, I, I just did a book, so I, I, I told some of the stuff. I'll tell you how I got the Trans Am. Trans A M. The Trans A and M. You know, I saw, I'm like, I'll make the story short.

• 9:32Speaker 02

  I saw the car, you know, in my, maybe in my junior, I did the Trans Am, but I saw it in my, my senior year too. I had to go by a place called Leo Johnigan. I drive by there more every day going to Houston. I go to Houston to see my grandmother. And so I'm like, well, I like that car. And I, you know, being a good football player, I tell my mom. And some kind of way it got back to my grandmother. You know, I liked the car. And it was a big, and in boosting ceiling, big one. And one, one day I went to get, she said, let's go, we're gonna ride to Houston, have a look at that car. I'm like, what car, the Trans Am? I'm like, okay. So I go down and look at the car. Two white men there, they came out and said, the car's yours. Yeah, you the keys. Take the keys. I'm, I said, Mama, she said, don't worry about that. You ain't, you ain't never got to worry about it. Fast forward, when the NCAA came, you know, they told me, you gotta talk to my mother. And she said, you gotta talk to his grandmother.

• 10:17Speaker 02

  My grandmother, my mother were two different people. They made, they thought my mother was my grandmother because she was older. I was adopted. My grandmother's actually in Houston. So now, she talked to them, blah, blah, blah. They finally let the investigation go because my grandmother told them if you, if I see you again, told the NCAA guy, if I ever see you again, I'm gonna sue you personally and the NCAA. Never saw him again after that. So after I retired, I said, Mama, how did that Trans Am come about? I found out, she said, well, you know, you, you didn't need to know, but I'll tell you now. She said that your grandmother paid for that car. Because my grandparents, they could afford it. She said, she said, your grandmother, they paid for that car. They paid fourteen thousand five hundred dollars for that car. Wrote them a check for it. She's saying. Texas A&M, I just said Texas A&M, gave them the money back in cash.

• 11:01Speaker 02

  Boom, car, you know, no, no trail. Know what A&M gonna say? I paid for that car.

• 11:11Speaker 02

  No, they couldn't tell. I mean, I mean, I didn't, I didn't know, I'm just a kid. And I just feel like, you know, hey, that's what, that's how it was. You know, you guys, everybody got recruited in here. And yeah, I got the, I got some of the handshakes too, the $500 handshakes. But it wasn't nothing that was life-changing, let's put it like that. Never, wasn't money that was gonna change my life. I didn't get land, you know, on, on, on, down on the coast, nothing like that. We got some, a few hundred dollars, a few thousand dollars that comes out too, and, and the car.

• 11:38Channing Crowder?

  Do you hate that your legacy of what we said, bro? Cause like I was joking walking in, I, I would not wanna hit your big ass every play. Bro, you was a dog. Do you hate that your legacy's attached to that Pony Express stuff? Like whenever somebody talks about Eric Dickerson, they always go back to that. Do, do you dislike it? Do you embrace it?

• 11:58Speaker 02

  You know, it doesn't bother me. It really doesn't, you know, I think, I think, I think the thing that bothers me the most is that they give the death penalty to me in my class. I was in the pros for five years and they got the death penalty. Nothing to do with the death penalty. That's the part that bothers me. The car, I think it's funny. I think it's great. The Trans Am, it's gonna, it's gonna live forever. You saw, you know, like the poster that SMU used for the recruiting for the NILs, you know, they got the Trans Am right in the front, you know, that, that's, that's part of our history. I mean, I think every school has history, no matter good, bad, or indifferent. But, man, I look, I love my university. I'm glad I went there. That's the school that, I say the school that my grandmother chose, my mom sure chose for me. I didn't choose it, but at the end, at the end of the day, man, I'm glad I went to SMU.

• 12:38Fred Taylor?

  So as big as you were, you know, even leaving there, second pick, the things you did as a Rookie of the Year, you know, so forth and so on going forward. Was, were there any resentment by the fans? Because they got the worst of the worst that you can get.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  You mean that-

• 12:53Fred Taylor?

  Could you go back to SMU and be looked upon as-

• 12:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, no problem, went back. You know, the people that were there, they knew it wasn't had nothing to do with us. Because look, in those years, we were dominant. If you want to say, if you want to say the best team money could buy, we were that team. Everybody wanted to be a Mustang. Everybody wanted to have that horse on their head. Because we had the cool uniforms, we were right in Dallas, Texas. I mean, we had the coach that was, you know, fly coach. I mean, beautiful girls, great campers. We had it all. It was like the show Dallas was hot back in those days, you know, Dallas. So, everybody wanted to go to SMU. I met so many guys, I said, "Man, Eric, man, I committed to SMU, man. They got the death penalty, man. I couldn't go. I didn't have no football." So, no, I just think it was, that was that era. And I think that era was great football.

• 13:39Ryan Clark?

  You know, when you get to the league and now you see the type of talent that they have, and you mentioned the field, the feel that you have for the game, and you start to dominate in the way that you do. When you were playing the game, were you focused on, or was being an all-time great something that mattered to you? Would you work on every day saying, because I say this all the time, and you know, I was talking the other day, and I said, "Look, you can do anything you put your mind to within your skill set."

• 14:14Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 14:14Ryan Clark?

  Not anything in the world, because some of us aren't capable.

• 14:17Speaker 02

  Right.

• 14:17Ryan Clark?

  But every day you woke up, you had the ability to be the best to ever do it from your position. Were you approaching football in that way?

• 14:26Speaker 02

  Most definitely. Great question. Most definitely. My dad taught me that. He had a saying to me. He said, "Son, all that you do what you might, things done by halves are never done right." I always wanted to be the best. I mean, always. You know, you got to understand, coming from a small town in Texas, a little town, 2,000 people, I heard all the time, "Man, Eric, you know, he ain't that good. You know, he ain't this, he ain't that." I mean, think about how many times I heard that. You know, "He can't play no college football. You know, he hang around here, but he can't play college." And I went to college. My first year, I struggled. See, them the big boys, he can't play with the college boys. Got a little better my next year. My junior year, really, really good. But my senior year... I was like, and I say this, you know, humbly, but I feel like a man playing with boys. My talent, second to nobodies. And that was a God given talent, it really was.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  I mean, it was time, a linebacker run up to me, I'm hell, I'm big as he is, you know, defensive end, I'm big as he is. I mean, I'm big, you know, I'm, he can't catch me, I can run over him, I can run around him. So, most definitely, I always wanted to be the best. When I got to the pros, I had that same mentality. I mean, I didn't know how it was gonna transcend. I won't forget, me and my best friend talked, uh, when I got drafted, he said, so, would you think to be a good rookie? I said, well, man, he's, cause he looked at Marcus's stats, I won't forget, look at Marcus Allen's stats. I think Marcus had like eleven hundred yards, something like that, like eight, nine touchdowns. And he said, well, man, you better, Marcus, he said, so, you should have maybe like thirteen hundred yards and ten touchdowns. Right. I said, that's a, that's a, that's a good goal. I mean, that was, that was a goal. But I had eighteen hundred yards and twenty touchdowns. And, and after that year, I mean, I just, I, I worked hard.

• 15:54Speaker 02

  I mean, and anybody who knows me, knew that worked out with me, I worked hard at it. It wasn't, it was, I had the gift, but I worked at the gift, you know, and I tell any kid that, you know, that God's gonna give you something, it depends on what you do with it. And for me, man, I always wanted to be the best player, you know, and, you know, in some phases I was, some phases I wasn't, but, you know, I, I always gave a hundred percent.

• 16:14Channing Crowder?

  We had Marshawn on, Marshawn Litt, so I gotta do it to Freddie again. Freddie, E D sweated in you.

• 16:20Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 16:22Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I mean, you gotta pay homage. At, at some point, right, you gotta, you know, when they say game, recognize game, and there are a lot of backs that come before me that I respect, even some guys that played in my era that I respect. I'm talking about, you know, the Ladanian, guys that play now.

• 16:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:39Fred Taylor?

  I love Saquon's game, certainly when he's healthy, Christian McCaffrey, a lot of, uh, Alvin Kamara. So, um, I always make sure, I, I check out other guys' game. I can see some backs that are in a system, and they're a product, they're a benefic, you know, benefactor of that system. And I'm looking like, alright, oh, I would love to have seven in the box every play. It's not always, you know, it doesn't always work out that way. But ED, he was a dog man. I remember the high step, you know, the lean back, running upright, you know, when he's in the open. But in contact, he always lowered his pad, big guy getting down. I was able to study his game. So certainly, I always tip my hats off to the legend.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  Funny vice versa because, you know, I told you this. I think I told you that they had me look at film on you. They had me look at film on him and Curtis Ennis. And the Rams asked me, they said, Eric, why don't you look at some film on some two players? I said, OK. I said, who was it? Curtis Ennis and Fred Taylor. So I said, OK. So they sent me the tape. I looked at them. I said, I knew which one I liked. I just wanted to see what they were gonna say. I said, which guy you like? I said, Tim, who y'all like? They said, we like Curtis Ennis. I said, not the guy. He said, no, I'm telling you. I said, no, I'm talking to the scout. And I said, not the guy. I said, I'm telling you. I said, they said, why? He said, Tim, give me your reasons why. I said, well, first of all, I think he's little. I said, and he runs leaning over too much. He gonna blow his knee out. I said, he doesn't run in control. I said, football, you gotta run in control. And they talked about it and said, well, look, Fred Taylor, he gets hurt too much. I said, that's college.

• 18:05Speaker 02

  I said, but I like the way he runs. I said, he's the guy. They said, we didn't get him drafted either one of y'all.

• 18:09Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 18:10Speaker 02

  But then as time went on, you know, and they say, Eric, you were right. I said, I told you. I mean, I said, I knew it. Same thing when we got Marshall Falk from, because I helped to facilitate that trade with the Rams to get Falk. He was in Indianapolis. And I went to our general manager and I told him, look, I said, I heard, I've talked to Falk and his agent. I said, he wants to get out of Indianapolis. I said, we have a chance to get him. And the general manager said, well, he's always, but why, Eric? Why? And I told him why. I said, this guy will make a big difference for our football team. I said, because we don't have a name player right now. You can't put nobody in the stands. I said, and I seen he's a great player. I said, I think he'll be a great player for us. Fast forward, what we do? Super Bowl. I expect that. But I said, you know, I'm not, I'm not saying I'm no guru, but I know my position, you know?

• 18:55Speaker 02

  And when I saw, and I saw where Fred ran, I said, man, he gonna be great in the pros. I mean, I just, I just knew it. And you didn't let me down.

• 19:02Fred Taylor?

  No, I appreciate it.

• 19:03Speaker 02

  I was just talking about you day before yesterday.

• 19:05Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I appreciate it.

• 19:06Speaker 02

  Telling this story.

• 19:07Fred Taylor?

  It's the same conversation with Marcus. But again, that's where, for me, you know, when they talk about Hall of Fame, it's not. My peers and the guys that have done it before me, that's, that's what matters the most to me, you know? But aside from that, going back to your draft class in 83, you know, going number two behind John Elway. You guys had Dan Marino, Kurt Warner, a few other guys that are legends in the game. Did that motivate you, knowing that you were in that draft class with those guys to be the best to get Rookie of the Year?

• 19:35Speaker 02

  Not really, you know, I mean, we just, we were just a bunch of kids, you know, just a bunch of young kids. It wasn't the media like they have today. It was, we just, we knew certain guys. Like, I played against Marino in the Cotton Bowl, you know, I heard about John Elway, Roger Craig, I was friends with Roger, met Roger going to the Hula Bowl, him and Jamie Williams. So.

• 19:56Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a Superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser-Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 20:25Speaker 02

  Not really. I mean, it was just, I just wanted to play well. I wanted to do well for my football team. And the thing I knew about with the Rams is, is that they had a good offensive line. And, you know, me, and I, and see, I never, I had no injuries when I came out of college. I never carried the ball four times since high school, you know, being that, that guy. So it gave me an opportunity to show how good I was. Because I always knew, I said, look, I said, if they'd have really pushed me for the Heisman, I don't want the Heisman. I mean, I always said that, I was the best player in the country that year. I mean, I'm not bragging, but I had 16, 17, 1679 yards, so like 203 carries, seven yards a carry, 17 touchdowns. I mean, I carried the ball half the time. I'd say Herschel had 150 more carries than me, and 100 more yards than I did.

• 21:08Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 21:10Speaker 02

  I say, I say, hey, I say, I tell him, I say, that's my Heisman you got, Herschel.

• 21:14Ryan Clark?

  You think about that, though, that draft, what it was, uh, it was Jim Kelly?

• 21:18Speaker 02

  Jim Kelly.

• 21:19Ryan Clark?

  In that draft, Dan Marino.

• 21:20Speaker 02

  Marino.

• 21:21Ryan Clark?

  John Elway.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  Darrell Green. Darrell Green, Roger Craig. I mean, that, that's, that was a great, that was a great draft.

• 21:27Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, like, when you look back at, at footballing, you see all of those great players that played in a different time, especially offensively, right? Offensively, you know, the, the rules weren't the same. You clothesline, you catch cats, you could blindside them and do those different things. And you watch players now. How do you think an Eric Dickerson would translate into today's football game?

• 21:51Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh. I'd kill these, man. I'd kill it. I'd kill it. Man, first of all, I'm, if I'm, just give me an offensive line. Just give me a, and give me a piece of quarterback. Just a piece, I ain't never really had a, give me, just give me a guy that can just get it downfield.

• 22:06Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 22:07Speaker 02

  And I ain't gotta see them eight, nine man fronts every time, you know what I'm talking about. Man, you watch the line of scrimmage, man, and you see the, you see the safety right there. You're like, damn, I mean, what am I, you know, it's frustrating. I mean, I would kill it, I know I would, I mean, people ask me that. I mean, with the talent I had, like I said, and I say it again, I bragging, but God gave me a talent second to nobody's talent. So, I would think I'd be, I think I'd do well.

• 22:30Channing Crowder?

  But you ain't gonna get all them damn carries now. Cause that little old school, be honest, that old school ass Derrick Henry.

• 22:36Speaker 02

  That's what I was finna say, that's what I was finna say.

• 22:39Channing Crowder?

  Who else, name the next one.

• 22:40Speaker 02

  You don't have to have another.

• 22:41Channing Crowder?

  Name the next one.

• 22:41Speaker 02

  You don't have to have another.

• 22:42Channing Crowder?

  Jonathan Taylor, Indianapolis? He ain't toting it like that. That's why they went out and, that's why they went out and traded, who they went out and traded for, what, sorry ass or somebody else? Can you load up right now, run the ball forty times a game, you speak of Tennessee. Tennessee has no Super Bowl rings because of the fact that that style of football cannot win this day and age when you got the Patrick Mahomes throwing five, fifty times a game. You can't do it with Ryan Tannehill.

• 23:06Speaker 02

  Put the Dallas Cowboys in the nineties, they ran the football, they ran the hell out the ball, but they had, they had Michael Irvin, they had Troy Aikman.

• 23:13Channing Crowder?

  Harp road outside.

• 23:14Speaker 02

  They had that big offensive line, they did it. I mean, if, if you got a quarterback and you got a running back, man, just happen, and you got a great offensive line, why wouldn't you run it? Let me tell you, I asked, I asked LT and Bruce Smith this question, we're talking about running football. I said, let me ask y'all a question, cause the reporters, I would say, ah, you don't have to have a running back, you don't have to run the football. I said, let me ask you guys, if you play in a football game and they didn't run the ball at all, I'm talking about no runs, no jet sweeps, nothing, both of them said, no runs? I said, oh, we'd love that, they said, we'd kill them. I mean, man, you gotta be able to run the football. The thing is, is that you, the backs don't wanna do it, they don't have the heart for it. Most of these backs are little guys, five eleven, they say, he's a big back, he's five eleven, five eleven, he's a little bitty man.

• 24:00Speaker 02

  I mean, I call them, I call them, I call them fat backs. They, they fat and they got a big, they get stumpy and they about five ten, I'm like, oh, he thick, he five ten, who in the hell, he five nine. I mean, I'm six foot three, I'm, I'm looking, I'm as tall as a, as a, as a defensive end, some of the defensive linebackers, yeah. So, when I stood in the backfield, I won't forget, we played the, we played the Detroit Lions, my rookie, I come on the field. And I ran by the DBs. One DB say, damn, that's a running back, that's a defensive end. I had 199.

• 24:34Channing Crowder?

  He didn't want to hit you from the jump though. He didn't want to hit you from the jump.

• 24:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I know, I know the era is different, but I think they made the game different because they want more scoring.

• 24:43Channing Crowder?

  Yep.

• 24:43Speaker 02

  They don't want to see a seven to three, they don't want to see a 10 to seven, they want to see a 45, 42. You know, it was 450 yards on this side and 550 on this side of offense. They don't want to see a defensive guy and that's, that's today's football.

• 24:55Fred Taylor?

  Nah, it's crazy. I say the exact same thing. The $20 hot dog, you can watch the game on the jumbo train. It's the excitement, that's their business model.

• 25:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:04Fred Taylor?

  Let the fans come in there and really just enjoy it. But the one biggest thing, I was, I was doing some research on you. Would you sign a $2.2 million contract as a rookie coming out?

• 25:13Speaker 02

  Man.

• 25:13Fred Taylor?

  Four year, 2.2 million?

• 25:15Speaker 02

  Brother, it was terrible.

• 25:16Channing Crowder?

  Number two pick?

• 25:17Speaker 02

  Let me tell you, my, my contract was bad. I mean, that's, I put like, I had a, I had a $600,000 signing bonus. My first year's base salary was 150, I was making 150. My, my, my signing bonus was a loan. It was, it was supposed to be an unforgivable loan. So when I got traded, I had to give, I had to get a ransom back my signing bonus. Yeah, and so my, my first year, I made 150 and I ran for the 1800. I made 175 when I ran for 2000. I ran, I made, the third year, I think I made 275. Then I held out and got 400, but that wasn't really my money. 1800. Yeah, nah, I didn't make no money. And, and I, I would go back and say, John Elway, you know, I'm, I'm, I just got to compare.

• 26:02Speaker 02

  I'm, he's the first, he was making a million dollars. I'm making 175. That's a big disparity. I mean, it was, I mean, that's, that's how they could do you back too.

• 26:11Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, we got to ask, your agent was bad, the team was bad, was y'all not aggressive enough? Because number one makes a million, number two makes 600.

• 26:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, but that's just how, that's how it was because, you know, they, they really controlled the narrative. Teams, when you, when your team drafted you back then, you were stuck. I mean, let's just say after, you got, say you play your four years and, and say somebody else wants you? And if you, we gonna make your offer? No, you ain't going nowhere till we let you go. That's how it was. You ain't going nowhere. You played four years for us? We still got your rights, that's how that we still got your right, you can't go nowhere. That's just, that's, that was the league back then.

• 26:44Ryan Clark?

  You know what's so crazy, you talk about the league back then and we talking about players now. Also, the, the fame, right, the, the attention you can get, the type of money you can make away from the field, the, the, the partying. You got here, straight from Dallas, to LA, ballin', killin', number two pick. What your life was like, away from the field?

• 27:06Speaker 02

  For my first year, it was, it was good. Cause really, I was, I was shy, I was, I was really kinda shy, so, you know, I didn't like, like I would sign autographs, I was kinda shy about it. I remember one, I went to my, my first Laker game, my doctor, he was the Lakers doctor, asked me to go to the game. And I'm like, sure, and they were like, man, you're going to Laker game to Doc, he said he got floor seats, I didn't know what floor seats were, he said, well, like, what's we gonna sit down on the floor? I'm like, okay, cause I didn't really watch that much basketball. So we got to the Forum, uh, we were going right down to the floor, I'm like, wow. And so I'm with Magic and Kareem and everybody came over, so I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm like, I'm tripping, I'm tripping. You know, I'm like, it's Magic, Kareem, and, you know, and, and they came and shaking my hand and they announced me on the, the loudspeaker, and they, yeah, I got up and they gave me a standing ovation, I'm like, oh, this ain't me. You know, this is just not, this is not me.

• 27:50Speaker 02

  And some, I remember at one point, I didn't even wanna like going out to clubs, because you know, not they would bombard me, I just, I was embarrassed behind it. You know, people ask me about, you know, your playing, I'm like, ah, you know, yeah. And so, you know, I kinda got over that part, but let me tell you, man, LA is a great place to play, it really is. You know, it's a great city, um, beautiful girls. I kinda got out of that going to the, when I'm to, when I'm into the basketball game now, oh, I was into it then. I got into it, I got into it. The Forum Club, I, I didn't wanna watch the game, I was in the Forum Club with the girls.

• 28:24Ryan Clark?

  Back then, when you grabbed a baton, did you leave the goggles on?

• 28:29Ryan Clark?

  So you, cause like you said, like you said you could see in front of you, so, did you leave the goggles on so you could really appreciate?

• 28:34Channing Crowder?

  You were the periphery on the side. Oh, you went sideways so you could see that thing.

• 28:40Speaker 02

  Let's just say, let's just say, man, it was, it was, it was good to be in L.A. I, I'm serious. I mean, I, I love playing for the Rams. Even though they wasn't paying me right, you know, we had a great team, a great team of guys. Uh, being in the city, even though we weren't in L.A., we were in Orange County, but I was always in L.A. You know, I was just, I always come to the city. And, um, you know, the funny thing about being out in Orange County, which was, we call it, we call it the orange curtain. You know, it was mostly all white, but you know, a few of the brothers would come out and watch the game. They were all saying, man, you need to be a Raider. You know, you, you know, you, we look at you as one of us, you know? The Rams are in Orange County. I'm like, hey, man, that's the team I play for. And the thing is, is that they, they said, man, we love watching you play though. Cause I won't forget one time I'm in a bar, uh, on Fridays in Marina.

• 29:23Speaker 02

  And I'm taking a leak. Two guys come in, the guy say, man, you see the Rams today, man? I heard him talking, man, man, and you see Eric, man, he was killing them, man. I'm listening, the guy said, man, I think that's it. Man, that ain't no Eric Dickerson, man. Man, he, I heard him say, he said, man, tell him you're Eric Dickerson. I said, I am Eric. He said, man, what the hell you doing here? He said, you tired after the game? You drove all of them to Orange County? I said, yeah, I came to see what y'all see, all these women up here. He said, you got that right. Man, I mean, I, I, I love.

• 29:52Fred Taylor?

  You like that look? Oh, you my spirit animal. Yeah, boy. It's crazy though that in L.A., Hollywood, the whole thing, right? For you to maintain your focus, you know, those early years of your career and the numbers that you put up. Eighteen hundred, twenty-one hundred, twelve hundred, eighteen hundred again. How were you able to maintain that?

• 30:14Speaker 02

  Like I told you, man, I always wanted to be the best. That was, that was, that was a burning desire for me. I mean, I won't forget, I did an, it was an event that I held out. I think the year I had the thirteen hundred, I think it was my third year, I held out. And I went to an event and Marcus Allen won the Russian title that year. And I got some, some of why I had, cause I, I broke the, I had the record in the playoff game, two forty-five in the playoff game. And one of the guys introduced Marcus, Marcus wasn't that, accepted for Marcus. And they said, you know, we won the Russian title, blah, blah, blah, you know, and, and I, and I, you know, and I, I didn't say nothing. So when I got to get my, my, my award, I said, well, you know, I want to congratulate Marcus, you know, I know he's not here with Marcus, I say, but. Only got that title because I held out. I said, we'll see what happened next year. And I remember eighteen hundred that next year, you know, so.

• 30:59Speaker 02

  You know, I was, I could say it was, it was easy because, man, football was, I, man, you know, you guys know, when you play, when you love it, you love, I loved everything about it. I can remember the smell of the grass when, when football, you know, oh, it's football season. I couldn't wait. I couldn't wait to get on the field and to, to do them, just to do my, do my thing. I mean, I just loved everything about it. And the sad part about it is, is that, you know, at one point, you know, later in your career, playing on bad teams and bad organizations, they make you hate it. They make, they make you hate a sport that you loved. And I mean, when I say loved it, I loved it. I make you hate a sport you love so much. That's the sad part about, about, about football.

• 31:40Channing Crowder?

  And the good and the bad of football, we all know. I told a story about Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates playing them boys. I go tell my coach, coach, do not make me cover him. He's gonna catch the ball. So big as you are, you know what I'm saying, for the football people, we talking ball.

• 31:57Channing Crowder?

  You said them DB, when you walk on the field, the DBs would be like, damn, that's a running back. But is there any, any of them names in your mind that they wrecked that chest?

• 32:05Speaker 02

  Oh, hell, yeah.

• 32:06Channing Crowder?

  They hit that sternum, like, give, give us some names that caught that sternum a couple of times.

• 32:09Speaker 02

  Come on. We played the Bears in the playoff game, that playoff game. Uh, Mike Singletary got me really good. I won't forget it. It was an ISO play, right after Millen, the, the H back came and supposed to, supposed to pick him up. And Richard Dent told me this a couple of years later, he said, we knew what the play was gonna be. He said, well, cause we had, he said, Eric, we had ten men. He said, we, we, y'all, we knew y'all gonna throw the ball. We couldn't. Our quarterback threw for fifty yards.

• 32:33Speaker 02

  He threw for, he threw for sixty the week before and fifty in that game.

• 32:36Channing Crowder?

  Oh, legit?

• 32:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, for real.

• 32:38Channing Crowder?

  He said, I thought you was joking.

• 32:40Speaker 02

  It's not a real joke. When I said, when I said earlier, I want a piece of quarterback, just give me, just give me a guy.

• 32:46Channing Crowder?

  Something.

• 32:46Speaker 02

  Something. So he threw for fifty yards. He said, Eric, he said, we knew, yo, y'all, we, we, he said, twenty-nine ain't gonna beat us. So Mike Guma came in motion and when they, when it hurt, Mike, I mean, Richard Dent caved it in, so knocked him off track. Mike, Mike, uh, Singletary had a free run. I saw him, but I, I'm thinking, Mike gonna still get him. And I mean, I'm running, we went, bam, and we stuck, just like this here. And man, all of a sudden, they bent me back and then all, and all the black waves, I mean, I ain't gonna lie. So I get up, go to the sideline. I'm like, shit, that hurt.

• 33:20Speaker 02

  Go there, I sit down, they came over. I knew something was wrong. And they said, so you all right? I said, I'm all right. They said, where you at? In Chicago. Said, what's your name? Eric Dickerson. What's your date of birth? I don't know how I'm out there. I have no idea. And I ain't know what date I was born. I have no clue what my birthday was. You know, that's just how it was. But yeah, he got me, he got me really good. Ran Ronnie Lott got me good. Got me in my, got my ribs, got me in my ribs. But I wore a flak jacket. But in that same game, I ran over him. You know, so. And I ran over Mike later. I mean, it's just, you know, they get you, you get them. I mean, that's just football. You ain't gonna win all the time. You know, that's like, this ain't the movies. Like, you know, the good guy, like, you know. Bruce Lee, he kicking everybody, we kicking everybody. Don't work like that, dawg. You know, you get, you get, you get, you get got sometimes.

• 34:04Speaker 02

  So, yeah, I've gotten got.

• 34:08Fred Taylor?

  Second best running back in the Rams history. Marshall Faulk and my big boy, Gurley.

• 34:15Speaker 02

  Ooh, I forgot about Todd. Oh, you talking about Steven. Steven, Steven. You talking about Steven, I play Steven. You know, you didn't say Steven? Because, you know, Todd is great. I mean, that's my guy, too.

• 34:24Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 34:24Speaker 02

  I said, number one, two, three. But I say Steven because Steven had nothing. He had nothing, man. I'm serious. And you know, you know, when you play that position, you know what it's like. You ain't got no help. He had no help, you know? That's why, that's why, I mean, I like, I like him, I like him just as number two. I mean, I mean, you know. I mean, I'll even put my, you know, I don't even like to put myself in that.

• 34:46Fred Taylor?

  Man, that's, that's a no brainer. I mean, that goes without question.

• 34:49Speaker 02

  Because, because in my era, maybe before my era, my favorite back of all time was OJ. Because that's why I wanted to play running back. He was big, he was tall, he was fast. You know, people say Jim Brown. I loved Jim. I didn't see Jim play. I saw a little bit of Gil Sayers, you know, like I said, a little bit. You know, mostly highlights. It's just, it's always guys you saw play. That's what it comes down to. But Rams, I would have to say, as I said, Faulk. Steven Jackson and then my guy Todd.

• 35:14Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 35:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:15Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I was hoping Steve retired because he's directly behind me on the all-time.

• 35:19Speaker 02

  Time list.

• 35:20Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, maybe like a hundred yards. I was like, retire, man, you gotta retire. Don't give him no carries. I think he ended up going to New England at the time. I was like, oh, I know one thing, he ain't getting no carries up there, so I'm good. But he was a beast, he was a dog.

• 35:33Ryan Clark?

  You talked about the guys in LA, right, the LA history that you look at. And I was listening to you earlier too, speak about watching Freddie T and Curtis Ennis, or different times you've consulted with the team. It seems that you have a really good relationship with the organization. And that's, it sounds crazy to me because you talked about your contract. You obviously end up playing for Indy, I think you played for Indy longer.

• 36:01Speaker 02

  I played for Rams.

• 36:01Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, then you played here. Why has that relationship been one of those relationships you've poured into since you've been retired?

• 36:11Speaker 02

  Well, I'll say this much to you, when I left the Rams, man, I was mad. I was hurt. I was really hurt when I left this team. Because I really wanted to stay with the team, but it just didn't work out that way. And the guy who traded me out, his name was John Shaw. You know, he told, later he said, I want to see you someplace where you'll be forgotten. Tried to send me to Indy, you know, I had no help because that was a bad organization. I see why John Elway didn't want to go there. When you get there, I say, I see why you didn't want to come here.

• 36:39Fred Taylor?

  The GM of the Rams told you, I want to send you somewhere that you can be forgotten?

• 36:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, he didn't, you know, I can say it's different, man. John Shaw was a guy, he was all about the numbers. He was all about the numbers and he was kind of, he was arrogant, he was arrogant. He didn't miss it. He was arrogant, you know, and he sent me to, because the Redskins wanted me. That's why I wanted to go. My cousin Dexter Manley was there. And he called me, said, Eric, man, I heard we trying to get you. I said, man, I know. And he said, man, they ain't gonna let that happen. That's too much like right. I'd have killed it over there. So anyway, you know, just being with the team, you know, then when I retired, this is when I retired, John Shaw, the German guy I'm talking about, Jackie Slater called me, said, Eric, man, he said, John Shaw, he wants you to call him. I said, call him for what? He said, want to talk. I said, man, F John Shaw.

• 37:27Speaker 02

  I said, man, I said, man, don't open me, man, I'm not calling him. He said, man, he said, I always said, man, he liked Eric, you know, he said Eric was a good guy. Because, I mean, I was a team player. I mean, I didn't cause no trouble. I didn't do drugs. I didn't beat nothing. I wasn't doing nothing but playing football. He said, well, I said, I said, you want me to have him call me? Sure enough, he called me. He said, and that boy said, hey, Eric. That's how he talked.

• 37:47Speaker 05

  It's John Shaw.

• 37:48Speaker 02

  Really?

• 37:51Speaker 02

  He said, how's it going? I said, good, John, what's happening, man?

• 37:56Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 38:25Speaker 02

  I'd like to sit and talk to you. I said, OK. So we settled with me and I went up to his office and sit down and talk with him. And I'll never forget, this is what he said. He said, Eric, I just want to tell you this. You're the greatest player I ever saw. He said, I screwed up. He said, you should have always been around. He said, you will always be a Los Angeles Rams to us. As long as I'm here, whatever you need, you just call me. And so when he told me that, man, as hurt as I was, you know, I kind of, I let it go. I really let it go. And that's how, you know, I just became, when they went to St. Louis, I would go back to see him play, you know, to see the game and stuff. And John Shaw, you know, he's right. And anything I needed, you know, he would, he would help me do. Is he still around? No, he doesn't work for the team anymore. He doesn't work for the team anymore. But I wish, I wish he was.

• 39:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, because I want to talk about those Super Bowl teams. Yeah, I wish he was. That's what I said. I wish he was. I mean, because even he called me about that. But you ask me that question, I'll tell you. But no, so that's why, I mean, and look, man, I'll always be around. I mean, I tell you, I love, one thing about, I'm loyal. I just got that loyalty thing. I mean, I mean, even I played for the Colts. He just said, I don't feel like a Colt. I don't. I mean, I just don't. I don't, I don't go back to any of the, none of the games. I just don't. I just feel like this is where I live. This is my team. This is a team I love. I mean, this team I want, this is the team I want to play for when I got drafted. Because you know why? I like the, I like that horn. I thought it just looked cool. And I thought I'd look good in a uniform and, you know. But when I go with your question, I'm.

• 39:53Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I wanted to see because you know, from some people's point of view, obviously theirs don't always matter. But some feel like it was a ungrateful, you know, response with the Super Bowl tickets that you received.

• 40:07Speaker 02

  Well, I'm gonna tell you this much here. First of all, never, I'm never ungrateful. That's the one thing. You never gotta be being ungrateful. You know, and I didn't even want to talk about that. I mean, I know how it works, you know, I know the system. And they did the same thing to me in Atlanta. I didn't say anything. I never said a word. I won't say nothing this time. Matter of fact, the tickets that I got in Atlanta, I gave to a guy who was a big Rams fan. I paid for his hotel and gave him my tickets to that game. Gave him the tickets because he was a huge Rams fan. I didn't even go to the one in Atlanta. If they called me the next day, they said, we got a ticket for you. I'm like, I'm cool. I just, I just stayed at my buddy's house and watched it. Here, the same thing. And look, I didn't want to bring that up. That was not my intention.

• 40:52Speaker 02

  I, because they kept asking me, I just say, I say, I'm not going to the game, you know. My main thing was, I want my football team to win. Can't invite no football game. I mean, but you know, they kept asking me, asking me. I said, well, when they asked me, and I'm gonna tell you, I mean, think about this, Fred. I'm gonna ask you this here. You played for Jacksonville for all those years. They went to the Super Bowl. Do you think they put you in the rafters? And I don't mean, I'm talking about the rafters, like the top of the stadium is right there.

• 41:21Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 41:22Speaker 02

  And I gave my tickets to a friend, to a girl that worked for me. She called me, she sent a picture. She said, Eric, these tickets are so high that I can't even stay up here. I've got to come down. She said, the players look like little ants.

• 41:35Fred Taylor?

  I, I think worst case, owner's suite, maybe. I mean, because you're, you're a face of the franchise.

• 41:41Speaker 02

  It wasn't even that. First of all, I mean, I even asked, could I even buy my tickets? That I have, see, I buy my own tickets. You can't, you can't buy them. The league takes them over. I was, I was willing to buy my own tickets. Put a go to the game. But you know, I ended up going with Shannon, with Shannon.

• 41:58Fred Taylor?

  Again, how we started by saying you're iconic as a running back, but you're also a legendary Rams player. And since they've been back out here in LA since 2017, I mean, you've. You've sort of reemerged, you know, on the scene with everything that they're doing with, you know, helping the rookies and directing them in those Super Bowl runs, two in, what, five years? I mean, that has to be special for, you know, an old head.

• 42:24Speaker 02

  You know, for me, especially for the young players. I mean, like, I never played in a Super Bowl, and that could I say for me, man, like, I don't care nothing about that crap. I mean, that could say, I wasn't gonna even say it, the guy kept asking me over. He asked me, so why you not going? Why you not, so that's why I said it. I mean, and I'm gonna say this much here, and I'll just, I'll just, I'll just say the name. We had a guy that plays for the Rams, Jim Everett. He made a comment, he made, he made a comment, and I'm almost gonna say it, you know, I mean, I'm, if you don't want the truth, don't ask me. He, to me, made a kiss-ass comment, you know, like, I'm just happy to be in the house. And we, we players, we know what's up. Like, guys who played with me, they called me about it. They said, man, what's that all about? We know what that deal's about, you know? I mean, I just keep it 100.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  Like I said, I love my football team. Everything's never gonna be perfect, but I love my organization, I love, I love the team. And I'm, I'm a player, I'm a player first, you know, even though I work for the team, I'm still, I stick to the player mentality. Even when I, when I do, when I did TV with you, I still had the player mentality, you know? I'm, I'm always for the players, if the player's doing right now, you know, if you're being lazy, it's different, but, I mean, I'm always a player.

• 43:29Ryan Clark?

  How did it feel to see them win the Super Bowl here in L.A.?

• 43:34Speaker 02

  The best, man, the best. I told them, I kept telling guys, even faulting them, I said, man, when y'all win that Super Bowl in, in St. Louis, I said, I know that's great. I said, but man, you went in L.A. I said, it's different, it really is. I mean, and look, L.A.'s still a Raider time, it's made us be making plans, it's still a Raider time. But it's back gradually going back, because the Rams were gone for 21 years. I mean, it was no team here. These little kids that are now 25 and 30, you know, they might have been Rams fans, my grandma, when they, but now they, they, they, Raiders, they, they 49ers. Hate them 49ers. 49er fan, they Cowboy fans, you know? So, it's just, it's gonna take a while, but to win a Super Bowl in L.A. and win at your home stadium, it's fantastic.

• 44:19Ryan Clark?

  I think the, the one thing before we wrap up that I'd like you to share is, uh...

• 44:26Ryan Clark?

  You were highly successful from the day you became a Rams. And you've now lived your life in a way that's exemplary, where people can look at you and say, I respect him. Not only, not because he does everything right, because he does everything as an adult man should do it. And he's OK with whatever comes with that. What would be your advice to young men who got their name called, or who got that called and now have an opportunity to represent one of these 32 teams and, you know, namely the Rams?

• 44:58Speaker 02

  That's a good question. Well, first of all, I haven't done anything right, but I tried to. You know, my main thing is, is I just remember my mother telling me when I came to LA. She said, Eric, don't go out there and embarrass yourself. Don't embarrass your name, your dad's name. He had a good name. My father had a really good name. And that's my big thing. I mean, and I'll tell any of these young, young players, you know, you're gonna only be number 29 or number 82 or 18 for a small amount of time. You're gonna be an older man a lot longer. So make that older man, make, make that legacy, a legacy that you can be proud of. And so that's for me, I just, I want my, my kids to be proud of me. I want my, my grandkids to be proud of me. You know, so that's what, that's kind of what I live by.

• 45:43Speaker 02

  And like I say, it's not a perfect life, but you know, it's a life that God gave me and I'm not making no excuses for it. I'm blessed to have what I have.

• 45:49Ryan Clark?

  Any regrets?

• 45:52Speaker 02

  Uh, I ain't gonna say regrets, no. Only regret, and that's not a regret. Do I wish that I could have stayed with the Rams my whole career? That's it, but I don't regret it. Because you know why? It didn't happen like that because when I got traded, it changed this pay scale for other players. It changed the pay scale for running backs. It really did because God told me, he said, man, Eric, he said, you didn't know this, but they had a rule called the Dickerson Rule. No one could make more than Eric Dickerson as a running back. But they brought our salaries up. And say, I didn't, I mean, I didn't even know that. But that's, that's, that's that hidden stuff they don't tell you. I mean, but, yeah, because I mean, I was outspoken, man. We were just, we wasn't getting paid right. Running backs weren't getting paid. I mean, it just wasn't happening for us. They were paying everybody else. But I mean, what about us? I mean, back in those days, we were the workhorses.

• 46:35Channing Crowder?

  Oh, yeah, it's crazy. I made more money than you, all your years. And I wasn't even worth a damn compared to you. But financially, I was better than you. But I was, but I was 20 years younger.

• 46:46Speaker 02

  Way better.

• 46:46Channing Crowder?

  And that was the difference. So, but just the love and we call him Freddie Flowers. He tries to give it. But the love of the OGs like that, for y'all to fight for that money is the reason that we could make the money that we made later on.

• 46:59Speaker 02

  And even guys before us, you know, that, that didn't get a chance to make the money. Because I think about my friend, Deacon Jones. He said, my first guy, he said, I made $7,500. So, you know, I mean, back in the day when I played, the minimum wage was 30,000. So guys had multiple, you know, guys sold cards, insurance. So it wasn't like, you didn't have a real offseason all the time.

• 47:19Fred Taylor?

  So on behalf of the running backs in the game today, I think I'll, you know, salute you and really just say, man, I personally appreciate you. And I'm sure those guys do. For, but just being a standard, you know, setting a bar. And I was just, man, giving us something to look up to and goals to chase. Uh, but with that, who are your top five backs in the game today?

• 47:45Channing Crowder?

  Right now?

• 47:45Fred Taylor?

  Right now. Just five. It usually changes, but five, easy five.

• 47:50Speaker 02

  I'm just gonna go by team. Like, you, you name it. That's, that's fine. There's gonna be some big old, big old sons of bitches. Well, you know, you know, you know, you know Derrick Henry, that, I mean, that's my, that's my number one.

• 48:01Fred Taylor?

  Okay.

• 48:02Speaker 02

  Number two would probably be, I still like Zeke, man. I still like Zeke. You know, you know I like Zeke? Because Zeke is tough. He runs between the tackles. I like Zeke. You know, um. Let me think. I like Saquon Barkley, but he's never had a chance. And I said that when he got drafted. I said, I hate to see this young talent go to a bad football team. He's probably going to end up getting hurt.

• 48:22Ryan Clark?

  He went early like you, though. He was the second pick of the draft as well.

• 48:26Speaker 02

  Second pick of the draft, but a terrible football team. God, let me see more back.

• 48:30Channing Crowder?

  You got two more.

• 48:31Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, yeah. Elvin Camaro, Christian McCaffrey.

• 48:34Channing Crowder?

  Off the other side, though, because you hit the two, the two first.

• 48:36Speaker 02

  Jonathan Taylor.

• 48:37Channing Crowder?

  Jonathan Taylor.

• 48:39Speaker 02

  You know, Christian McCaffrey. I like Christian McCaffrey.

• 48:40Channing Crowder?

  But how do you feel about Christian McCaffrey and Camaro, the guys out of backfield? The receiving backs, because you, like you said, Derrick Henry, number one, that's downhill. Our formation guys. You like, you like those?

• 48:52Speaker 02

  I, I like them, but I like guys coming out the backfield, too. See, my first year, I had 51 receptions. Because we had a kind of a quarterback. I had 51 receptions for, I think, 498 yards. But my quarterback, that was Vince Ferragamo. After that, I never played with a quarterback like him ever again. So, I like the young kid, Christian McCaffrey. I like McCaffrey a lot. Because, I mean, he's just been hurt, you know, but, man, I call him white chocolate. That white boy can play, man. I mean, I mean, I call it like I see it. I mean, I, I, I like him. So, I don't know if that was five or nine.

• 49:23Ryan Clark?

  That's five?

• 49:24Speaker 02

  That's five, but yeah, yeah.

• 49:25Ryan Clark?

  I say this, that's solid five. I say this, man, for, I am a football nerd.

• 49:31Speaker 02

  I know. You know all about it. I love watching on TV.

• 49:33Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, I'm a football, I'm a football junkie, so for us to have the opportunity to sit down with one of the best that ever lived on, on our little show, man, is, is, is huge. It's huge for us, and we couldn't be, we couldn't be more grateful, you know, that you gave us your time. This is, for sure, one of the more special pivots, you know, we've done since we got together, man. So, thank you so much.

• 49:56Speaker 02

  No, thank y'all. I appreciate it.

• 49:57Channing Crowder?

  TD, I'd have thumped that chest.

• 50:00Speaker 02

  You thumped it?

• 50:02Ryan Clark?

  That was Nick's chest.

• 50:03Speaker 02

  You've got these, you've got these knees one time. You've got these knees one time. And a big old shoulder pass, I will.

• 50:10Speaker 02

  Okay, okay.

• 50:11Ryan Clark?

  Appreciate you.

• 50:37Speaker 06

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time. We go V.

• 50:45Speaker 07

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