Dickerson, Playing Waiting Game, Says He’ll Sit Out the Whole Season
Eric Dickerson, who opens the fourth week of his holdout from the Rams today, said in a phone interview over the weekend: “I’ll sit here the whole season. I will. I mean, I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Dickerson has been using his home in Sealy, Tex., a suburb of Houston, as his base of operations for the last 11 days while waiting for the Rams to respond to his demand to negotiate a guaranteed contract extension.
He said he hasn’t heard a word, and that he hasn’t even talked to Coach John Robinson. He complained that even linebacker Norwood Vann, his best friend on the team, had stopped calling him.
“It’s so funny, in a way,” he said. “When you’re in training camp you see different guys and then they’re gone--cut. There’s a lot of fun, too. I’m not there for any of that. I’m missing all of the drama of training camp.
“I’ve watched parts of the games (on television). I miss it some, but I can occupy myself. I’ve been traveling outside of Sealy. I’m not worried. It’s only pre-season. I wish I was there but, believe me, I’m having a great time here at home.”
Dickerson said the only thing that’s bothering him is his apparent drop in public esteem: from Eric the Great to Eric the Ingrate.
“I’m so sick of hearing about the car that Georgia gave me, the $200,000 worth of furniture that I do not see in my house, and that she’s flown my mother out there, when she’s never flown my mother out,” Dickerson said. “I paid to fly my mother out.
“Plus the satellite (dish) she gave my mother when my mother didn’t ask for a satellite. I didn’t ask her for a car. They should get tired of repeating that, the same thing over and over.
“And each time it changes. One time the car’s 30 (thousand dollars), the next time it’s 50. Sometimes it’s $100,000 worth of furniture, then it’s 200, next time 250. Or she decorated my mother’s house. Nobody ever gets it straight.”
National Football League clubs are allowed to fine holdouts up to $1,000 per day, but apparently Dickerson isn’t being fined. Neither he nor his advisers at the Ken Norton Personal Management Agency have been informed of fines, although the Rams won’t say.
Dickerson, whose current agreement has two years to run at an average of $550,000 per year, was asked what would be required for him to return.
“Just what I told ‘em,” he said. “They know what it’ll take.”
He reiterated adviser Jack Rodri’s requirement for active negotiations in good faith.
“And I may have to have something signed to protect myself,” Dickerson said. “I don’t like it, but if I get hurt I’m done for. If I go get hurt this year I can’t go talk about a contract (extension).”
Most of all, he isn’t concerned about losing his job to backup Barry Redden, who has rushed for 203 yards in the two practice games.
“Barry’s doing a good job,” Dickerson said. “Barry’s a good running back. But he’s just doing what he’s paid to do.”
With the season opener against Denver Sept. 8 still three weeks away, Dickerson implied that the situation wasn’t critical.
“I’ve been working out quite a bit,” he said. “I haven’t run the plays, but we didn’t change much . . . the audibles and a few other things. I’m in shape. I can play right now.
“If I came back the week of a game, I could play but I don’t know how effective I’d be, especially in the passing game.
“I hope it works out soon. If not, it’ll be a long year, I guess.”
A chronological look at the Dickerson Holdout:
June 14--Adviser Jack Rodri mails Ram vice president-finance John Shaw a two-line letter requesting a meeting.
June 17--Shaw phones back, wants to know why Rodri wants to meet because Dickerson is under contract for two more years. Shaw agrees to a meeting.
June 21--Team Dickerson, consisting of Rodri, Ken Norton, lawyer David Epstein, meet with Shaw and Ram general counsel Jay Zygmunt at Norton’s office, then all go to lunch. Rodri picks up the check.
June 27--Group meets again at Epstein’s office in Century City. Team Dickerson presents a proposal for extending Dickerson’s contract through 1989.
July 17--Team Dickerson, having heard nothing from the other side, charges that Shaw reneged on his agreement to negotiate an extension and thereby breached the contract. Shaw declines to comment.
July 29--Ram veterans are due in camp. Dickerson holds a press conference to announce he won’t be there, forfeiting his $150,000 reporting bonus.
Aug. 8--Dickerson goes home to Sealy, Tex.
Aug. 18--No further developments.