Gold Jacket Spotlight: Eric Dickerson made running look easy

ERIC DICKERSON'S smooth running style elicited a wide range of comments – from those who marveled at how easily a 6-feet-3-inch running back seemed to glide across the field effortlessly to those who mischaracterized his grace as a lack of effort.

An encounter with then-Rams head coach John Robinson, cited in Eric’s book, “Watch My Smoke,” serves as an example. Robinson once admonished Eric for what he thought was jogging during a play.

After Eric accomplished an 85-yard touchdown run against the Jets the next game, Robinson confessed, “I guess you weren’t jogging,” as Eric returned to the sideline.

“People always underestimated how fast I was,” was Eric’s perspective about the doubters.

Described by Pro Football Hall of Famer, MARCUS ALLEN, as “... almost like a gazelle,” and “beautiful to watch,” Eric this week steps into the Gold Jacket Spotlight.

Amassing more than 2,000 yards rushing during his senior year at Sealy (Texas) High School, Eric was recruited by a number of top-level NCAA universities. With direction and assistance from his adoptive mother, Viola Dickerson, Eric enrolled at Southern Methodist University.

Viola and her husband, Kary, provided leadership by deeds and lessons throughout Eric’s rise from Sealy to the NFL.

Eric often delivers the motivational lesson provided by Kary: “Whatever you do, do with your might; things done by halves are never done right.”

Eric never did thing by halves.

At SMU, Eric became a part of the legendary “Pony Express” backfield with Craig James. Even while sharing carries with James, Eric broke Earl Campbell’s all-time Southwestern Conference rushing record.

The “job-share” backfield experience, in Eric’s opinion, was a benefit he described in an episode of “A Football Life,” saying, “When I got to the NFL, I felt like I was fresh. I hadn’t been beat up. I felt like we just saved each other.”

Selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the opening round (second overall pick) of the 1983 NFL Draft, Eric quickly, and as gracefully as he ran, made a record-breaking and long-lasting impact in the NFL.

During his rookie season, Eric set a pair of records that remain intact: most rushing attempts (390) and rushing yards (1,808) in a rookie season. Those efforts were recognized when Eric was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and a first-team All-Pro.

On Dec. 9, 1984, during the penultimate game of the season and utilizing one of the Rams’ most successful offensive plays – 47 Gap – Eric broke the NFL record for most rushing yards in a season. He added to the achievement the final week of the season, accumulating 2,105 yards in a season, a record that still stands.

In the NFL Films production “The Top 100 NFL’s Greatest Players 2010,” Allen observed, “Eric Dickerson was really a freak of nature. Rarely did you see a guy with that size that had the tremendous speed. Usually, you have one or the other. Some guys are fast, but they can’t make moves; they don’t know how to cut. Eric could do all that.”

With the Rams, Eric totaled 7,245 career yards (second all-time for the franchise) in 65 games for a record 111.5 yards-per-game average.

Through Eric’s 11 seasons in the NFL, he was named an AP first-team All-Pro five times, selected to the Pro Bowl six times and earned four league rushing titles (1983, 1984, 1986 and 1988 seasons). He was chosen as a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1980s.

In 1999, Eric was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and while describing that experience for NFL Films he recalled, “You ride in the parade, and I saw all the stuff, your picture everywhere. You think about as a football player you go to all these different cities and they boo you. That day (enshrinement) everybody loves you. I almost started crying. It almost brought me to tears.”

As beautiful an experience as an Eric Dickerson 85-yard gallop.