Money Can’t Buy Happiness : Raiders’ Dickerson Says Losing Simply Wasn’t Worth It

If the 1980s were about greed, then some believe Eric Dickerson personified the decade.

When Dickerson left the Rams, the perception was that he demanded a trade to the Indianapolis Colts simply because he was greedy.

Dickerson denies that.

Due to earn $2.2 million with Colts this season, and $8.6 million over the next three seasons, Dickerson says he took a pay cut to $1.1 million after he was traded to the Raiders last April because he wants to end his career with a winning team.

“I’ve made a lot of money,” Dickerson said. “Money is great. You have to have it to live, but it’s not everything. I still make a lot of money. Anything over $1 million is a lot of money. And I’m satisfied with it.

“I told one player (in Indianapolis) last year, ‘They could pay me $5 million and I still want to get out of here.’ That’s just what it came down to, I wasn’t happy there.”

Dickerson said it was difficult to find happiness with the Colts, who lost 15 of 16 games last season.

“I hate losing,” Dickerson said. “That’s the main thing. You don’t know what it’s like to go out week after week and get laughed at and get booed. There’s nothing you can do, because your team sometimes wasn’t as competitive as the teams we played.

“Winning, that’s what it’s about. I get more of a thrill from winning than I do the money.”

Dickerson says he has found happiness with the Raiders, the winningest team in professional sports over the last three decades.

“Football is also mental just like it is physical,” Dickerson said. “Mentally, it takes a lot out of you if you’re at a place you don’t want to be. You don’t perform as well because you don’t want to be there. Mentally, I’m more in tune than I’ve been in a while.

“When you’re mentally happy, you play better because you don’t have other things to think about. Of course, you have a personal life outside the football field, but as far as your playing and being with the football team, you feel satisfied, and I feel satisfied.”

But Dickerson won’t be satisfied until he gets a Super Bowl ring.

Although Marcus Allen has been the focal point of the Raiders’ rushing attack, Dickerson doesn’t think he will have trouble sharing time with Allen, who hasn’t reported to training camp because of a contract dispute.

“I know Marcus,” Dickerson said. “Everyone tries to make it a deal like I’m here to take Marcus’ job. Marcus has had players come in ever since he’s been here. This is nothing new to him. I’m not here to intrude on his spot. He has a place on this team just like I have a place on this team.”

How will the Raiders split the load between Allen and Dickerson?

“We’ll worry about that when it happens,” Coach Art Shell said. “Marcus isn’t here yet. But as I said last year (when Allen split time with Roger Craig), those things have a way of working themselves out. We had one tailback in some games last year (when Allen was sidelined because of a knee injury). That just goes to show you that you can’t have enough good people.”

When Dickerson played for the Colts, some of his teammates said privately that they were a better team when Dickerson wasn’t playing. He was suspended for eight games over the last two seasons, five for allegedly refusing to take a physical in 1990 and three for allegedly refusing to practice.

“There are always guys that you don’t like,” Dickerson said. “And there were some guys there that I just didn’t hit it off with. Most of the guys I played with when I first got there are gone. A lot of the guys I didn’t know. I wanted to win. I don’t know what their priorities were.”

Despite Dickerson’s troubled past, Shell doesn’t think he will cause dissension.

“You’re always concerned when those things (disciplinary problems) happen,” Shell said. “But I can’t foresee any problems. He’s been a model citizen since he’s been here. Everything we’ve asked him to do, he’s done. I don’t see any problems at all.”

Only Walter Payton and Tony Dorsett have gained more yards in the NFL than Dickerson, who in nine seasons has 12,439 and needs 301 to surpass Dorsett.

However, Dickerson, who rushed for 1,000 or more yards in each of his first seven seasons, has only 1,213 over the last two seasons.

After reporting to camp in the best shape of his career last season, Dickerson rushed for a career-low 536 yards behind a Colt offensive line that had been hit hard by injuries. That was after Dickerson sat out six games, three of them for disciplinary reasons.

But Dickerson, who set an NFL single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards in 1984 with the Rams, thinks he can still be productive.

“First of all, I haven’t played 16 games (during one season) in two years,” Dickerson said. “I’ve been under suspension twice, and it’s kind of hard to have big numbers when you play eight or nine ballgames a year. But people don’t look at that. I know what the deal is. If I had played 15 of 16 games, 1,000 yards, that’s no problem for me. One thousand yards? That’s easy for me.

“I feel like I could still carry the ball 25 or 30 times a game if I had to. Some running backs don’t like to carry the ball a lot, but I’ve always liked carrying the ball a lot because I feel the longer I get the ball, the better off I’ll be. It’s like the more miles you put on a car, the better it runs.”

Although Dickerson will be 32 before the regular season opens, he has never had a serious knee injury. “Everyone says I’ve lost a step,” Dickerson said. “But thing about my speed is, I was fast coming out of college, and I’m still fast. I may not be as fast as I was when I came out, but a lot of guys that are younger than I am still couldn’t outrun me.”

Shell says that Dickerson can still be productive.

“Any time a guy turns 30, everybody says he automatically loses a step whether he loses it or not,” Shell said. “I don’t know if he’s lost a step. We haven’t timed him. We don’t time veterans. But he still has the ability to break some runs. That’s what we looked at in the off-season when we looked at films from last year.

“He’s a bright guy. He makes very few mistakes. That’s the one thing we noticed in the mini-camp. If you tell him something one time, he doesn’t screw it up the next time. He picks up things very fast.

“The guy’s a class player. He played in the league for a lot of years and he’s been an outstanding player for a lot of years. You expect him to do the things he does. He catches the ball well and he can break a run. And he’s willing to block.”

Dickerson, who never felt comfortable living in Indianapolis because he said he couldn’t escape the spotlight, is happy to return to his estate in Malibu.

“I don’t want to be Hollywood,” Dickerson said. “I never liked all the attention, because sometimes it caused more problems than what it was worth.”