Top 33 Quotes & Sayings by Eric Dickerson

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Eric Dickerson.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
Eric Dickerson

Eric Demetric Dickerson is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Dickerson played college football for the Mustangs of Southern Methodist University and was recognized as an All-American. He was selected in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft and played professionally for the Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Raiders, and Atlanta Falcons of the NFL. During his NFL career, he rushed for over 13,000 yards. He holds the NFL's single-season rushing record with 2,105 yards, set in 1984. Dickerson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2019, he was named to the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. He wore prescription goggles throughout his career due to myopia.

I'll tell you one thing about me: I'm very private. I always have been private. People think I'm callous, arrogant. I didn't like the media attention.
Running is so natural to me. When I was running track, people used to ask me, 'When are you gonna start running hard?' The wind hits me in the face, and I feel so smooth... Man, I love to run!
I believe if I stay tall and run up high, I can see better. — © Eric Dickerson
I believe if I stay tall and run up high, I can see better.
The perfect fit for L.A. would be the St. Louis Rams. I really believe that. I know their stadium deal is about expired, or it is expired. They're working through that. I think it would be the old Los Angeles Rams in town.
In the NFL they talk about 'contracts,' but it's not really a contract, it's a one year agreement. If you have a 10 year contract, it means nothing. If you get cut in the NFL, you get nothing. People don't talk about that.
I love being single. I can come and go as I please and stay out as late as I want to.
Playing the running back position, your legs, that's your living, that's how you make your living. You have to have great thighs, knees, everything.
When you look at guys who get recruited, most of the best athletes, they come from poor families. I don't forget. I was a junior looking through my mother's stuff and looked at her bank statement, and we had $30 in the bank.
I was raised by my great-great aunt. I was adopted within our family. My mother had me when she was, I think, 15, 16. They tried to get her to have an abortion and she refused. So, my 'mama' adopted me, which was really her great aunt, which was really my great-great aunt, who was named Viola Dickerson. I was told that my mother was my sister.
I run upright mostly when I see daylight, so if you watch film you'll see I don't get hit in the chest much.
Them sportswriters don't even know how to put uniforms on, most of 'em.
She told me I wasn't playing for the coach, I was playing for myself.
I don't love football the way I once loved the game. I don't look at it as fun anymore, and it definitely used to be fun. A lot of the fun has been taken away from it, I guess, because you go through so much on the field and off the field.
I think I'm proudest of making my parents proud.
I love golf. But do you know how I got good at golf? Because of Charles Barkley. I was playing with Charles, Michael Jordan and Roy Green, and Charles was talking so much trash. On every shot, he was talking trash. So I left the tournament, and I went and practiced for a year and half.
Most of the hits I take come on top of the shoulder pads.
I'd love to be in the Hall of Fame one day and win Super Bowl rings, or even one... and stay healthy.
Anything will worry me. I may not get a check for the light bill off in time and I just get to worrying. I'm a worrywart.
I'm just not the outgoing bubble of energy. But if I know you, it's different. Practical jokes. Have fun. I'm not looking for any new friends. I got my friends.
I've stayed buddies with my old buddy Jackie Slater. I talk to Jackie Slater. I play golf with Marcus Allen a lot. I play golf with Marshall Faulk a lot. My buddy Craig Young, he lives up in New Mexico. I still talk to a lot of the guys.
I don't give players a chance to hit me.
When they have their hands on their knees, that's when they're tired.
In the NFL, you have a short shelf life. As a running back, if you're the first pick, and you're NFL life expectancy is only 3.5-6 years, your first big contract might not come until three years in - well, you might never get there. They need to get those signing bonuses up front because nothing is guaranteed.
I heard that all the time. ‘He makes it look too easy, he doesn’t run hard.’ It was always a slight on me.
In the NFL they talk about "contracts," but it's not really a contract, it's a one year agreement. If you have a 10 year contract, it means nothing. If you get cut in the NFL, you get nothing. People don't talk about that.
Running is so natural to me. When I was running track, people used to ask me, "When are you gonna start running hard?" The wind hits me in the face, and I feel so smooth - Man, I love to run!
I'd love to be in the Hall of Fame one day and win Super Bowl rings, or even one - and stay healthy. — © Eric Dickerson
I'd love to be in the Hall of Fame one day and win Super Bowl rings, or even one - and stay healthy.
It doesn't matter if you want to be in the NFL or do something else. If you want something great, you won't get it sitting around.
I hated the goggles, don’t get me wrong, but I felt naked without them. Almost like playing without a helmet.
Life isn't about a hand-out. That's not what the NFL is about and that won't get you in the NFL or take care of you once you're out of the NFL. You have to work.
Football isn't who we are, it doesn't necessarily define us. It's part of our life and it always will be, but football won't define us. Excellence does.
I love the sport but it's definitely taken a toll on me. The first two years after I retired I was in pain and couldn't even sit in a chair for 2 years. 2 years! You want a sport that takes care of you the way you take care of the sport.
When I loved it, I loved it. It was nothing better.
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