Eric Dickerson: NFL are 'pimps,' Players their 'whores' (Exclusive Part 1/3)

Editor’s Note: With the L.A. Rams now back in the Super Bowl, we re-publish our exclusive interview, from November, with the franchise’s most accomplished and best known player.

About eight years ago, Eric Dickerson at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. He was playing golf with his good friend Marcus Allen, as well as Lawrence Taylor and Richard Dent, when he was asked to participate in a comprehensive survey about the league itself by a pair who represented the NFL.

Dickerson, during our in-depth and wide-ranging exclusive interview, said he started laughing when the guy and girl approached him to register his true thoughts and feelings on the National Football League.

They knew, as does anyone close to the class of 1999 Pro Football Hall of Famer that he simply doesn’t hold back. He brought full speed, high intensity candor to both the survey, and our half-hour conversation.

During his one-on-one session with the questioner he referred to the league itself as “pimps” and the players as their “whores.” The other three Pro Football Hall of Famers near Dickerson at the time were blunt as well.

Regarding the league Dickerson said:

“The NFL, I said man, I hate the NFL! I hate them, the NFL is a bunch of pimps and we’re their whores! That’s how they make us feel. When you leave the game, it’s almost like they want you to go away and die.”

The surveyor asked Dickerson if that’s how he really felt, and he confirmed that his comment was no joke. By that time, Taylor was walking by and Dickerson motioned for him to come over and field the same question that the L.A. Rams legend had just answered.

“Fuck the NFL, I hate them motherfuckers,” LT exclaimed, according to Dickerson.

Then Richard Dent came by and it was his turn to let it rip on the NFL.

“Those fucking criminals, we hate their asses,” the Super Bowl XX MVP responded, as Dickerson tells it.

“Marcus Allen- pretty much the same, but not as harsh, they don’t treat us right, they’re criminals,” the Raiders and USC legend said, according to the NFL’s single season and rookie season rushing records holder.

“You got four Hall of Famers talking about a league that they say, THEY SAY, doesn’t take care of the guys, they treat us like we don’t matter, and that’s the sad part of the NFL, because I guarantee that you will hear this story from 90% of the players, provided they have the guts to say it.

“That’s the problem, a lot of the guys are afraid to say it, I don’t know what they’re afraid of- they can’t do anything to them because they don’t give them anything.”

Regarding the players specific portion of the survey, Dickerson responded to the NFL’s questioner thusly:

“I love the players, but it’s just like any job, you have players you don’t like, don’t get along with on your own team and that’s how it is, but mostly it’s just love, you love playing, you love the whole deal.”

While some of the players may be afraid to speak up and speak out against the abuses (at worst) and mistreatment (at best) by the league, this isn’t a problem for the players’ wives. Dickerson referred to as “the real heroes” who are simply “not afraid.”

He elaborated further:

“You know why the wives aren’t afraid to say anything? Because the wives are taking care of our old asses. They see what we’ve been through.

“They see the dementia, the hips and back problems that we have. They see the breakdown of a guy who was once a great athlete and when they call the NFL to help them, there is no help.

“I give them (the league) credit- they try to do some little things a little bit better, but in the great scheme of things they don’t help the players and I think that’s where the disconnect is between the national football league and the players.”

All the corruption, in both the NFL and the NCAA (that part will be published tomorrow), comprised the majority of this deep and meaningful conversation. Eric Dickerson discussed how neglectful the NFL is when it comes to pension and healthcare plans for their most essential of all workers.

Shortly after he turned 50, Dickerson, now 61, went to visit his friend, the late great Deacon Jones.

The class of 1980 Hall of Famer was in the hospital for some checkups at the time, and he talked about how awful his pension was.

Dickerson recalls:

“He said I get $250 a month, what am I going to do with $250 a month? I’ll take it just because I don’t want them to have it. Think about that, it’s a guy who played 15-16 years; it’s a little bit, but not much better now than for the guys who played in my era.

“Some guys get $1,500 a month, others $2000. I mean you could be a police officer or work at the post office and have a better pension than that. Let’s just start with the pension, the pension is a joke, it’s laughable.”

The Sealy, Texas native also pointed out how the league has “no health care at all, they’re supposedly trying to work on that” despite how well the entity is doing financially right now.

“There’s only a few guys making real money,” he said of the players and former players, while pointing out how “they (the league) are killing it” from the revenue side of things.

“Major League Baseball, basketball- they have a real pension they get $10,000 a month, Wow! Some guys are only getting a $1,000 a month in pro football.

According to celebritynetworth.com, if that’s a resource to really trust, Dickerson is worth about $10 million.

He played 11 years, at a position where the average career lasts just 3.5 years. He currently works in radio and he’s enjoyed an extensive broadcasting career, on both television and radio, since he retired.

He’s also been involved in acting, reality TV and some internet e-tailing, and recently branched out into NFTs (non-fungible tokens)

“It’s a career we choose, but we pay the price for it, you don’t get rich off it,” the member of the NFL 100th anniversary team said.

“But do the players right- have health care for them, when I retired, we didn’t have health care. I can pay my own health care, I still do pay my own healthcare, but a lot of guys can’t and couldn’t.

“A lot of guys died because they couldn’t afford their medication. A lot of people don’t know that and in the big scheme of things- they don’t care. (For most of the general populace) you only care about what’s affecting you.”

However, Eric Dickerson is not some run of the mill disgruntled former employee. He’s not airing his grievances for the sake of just venting.

He’s entirely grateful to what the game of football provided him, and that’s why he hopes to change it, for the better.

“I’m glad I played, I loved everything about football,” he continued.

“I loved the smell of the grass, when the start of a football season was coming. It’s a game that I loved so much, and it’s a game they made me hate it so much, at the end, and that’s the sad part. I hope a lot of players don’t feel like that now, because a lot of players in my era do.”

“Football gave me the life I had, I was blessed and I was fortunate, but you talk to so many players who have a bad taste in their mouth about the NFL.

He concluded in summation: “but I feel bad for the players and that’s my fight.”