Up next in 10
NFL Legend Erick Dickerson Talks New Book ‘Watch My Smoke’ and The Need For More Diversity In League
Feb 14, 2022
Rams legend Eric Dickerson stopped by the Sway In The Morning Super Bowl booth to talk about his new book before skipping out on the game because of the disrespectful nosebleed seats he was given. He talked about the need for more diversity in coaching and ownership in the NFL.
Subscribe Here! http://bit.ly/SubscribeSU
Watch the Best of Sway In The Morning! http://bit.ly/BestOfSITM
Check out More From Sway’s Universe
http://swaysuniverse.com
http://twitter.com/swaysuniverse
http://instagram.com/swaysuniverse
http://facebook.com/swaysuniverse
#EricDickerson #NFL #WatchMySmoke #SuperBowl #LARams #SwaysUniverse #SwayInTheMorning #SiriusXM #Shade45
About SWAY’s UNIVERSE
Exclusive interviews from Sway Calloway and the Sway In The Morning/ SwaysUniverse.com team with some of today's biggest celebrities, like Kevin Hart, Kanye West, Eminem, Usher, Jessica Alba, Steve Aoki, Torey Lanez, Julia Stiles and so much more.
Sway’s Universe
https://www.youtube.com/UCuS96jkLKpTaGB_OWnwZV_A
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
wow man easily the greatest player in
0:02
los angeles rams history's nfl single
0:05
season record holder for most rushing
0:06
yards man and i'm gonna put it out there
0:09
have to be okay the best dressed in nfl
0:12
history
0:13
the one and only eric dickenson tracy
0:15
you will see this man he's so sharp i
0:17
got cuts
0:18
describe it
0:20
oh man have the duty of honors man what
0:22
do you got see here's the thing that's
0:24
okay so tracy the blue not only is it
0:27
like that pristine navy blue but the
0:30
tailoring and the details tracy
0:33
unmatched and then he just kept it so
0:35
light he's just like i'm just gonna
0:36
throw on a light pair to walk around in
0:38
two babies so when they look down at the
0:40
feet i'm in stride just looking like
0:52
yeah
0:53
i might forget who i am
0:56
hey man uh man i watched you over the
0:58
years we actually met at these before
1:00
plenty of times i hope i made an
1:01
impression on you if i didn't i'm gonna
1:02
introduce myself every time because it's
1:04
worth it to me um and i want to say
1:07
congratulations to you on your new book
1:09
watch my smoke the eric dickinson story
1:11
which is out now um i feel like what i
1:14
like about it is that i think we got to
1:16
start telling these stories telling our
1:17
own narratives and
1:19
and part of your career wasn't just the
1:20
great things you did on the field but it
1:22
was also
1:23
the negotiations that took place in the
1:25
office space right almost definitely
1:27
yeah man and were you just cognizant
1:29
coming into the league that man i'm
1:30
gonna make sure i'm i'm not being
1:32
exploited in the contract
1:34
no because you know i came from a small
1:36
town in texas and you know i wanted to
1:38
play football i didn't think i didn't
1:39
think i played pro professional football
1:41
but i was blessed to play professional
1:42
football but it's like anything you know
1:45
i know it's fair and i know what's not
1:46
fair and you know the thing was when i
1:48
got drafted uh john elway was the first
1:50
pick i was the second pick
1:52
elway was making a million dollars i was
1:54
making 150 000. you know that's kind of
1:56
that's that's a big disparity yeah you
1:57
know maybe it was a quarterback but
1:59
still i mean like i was i was putting up
2:01
quarterback numbers you know i was our
2:02
quarterback so
2:04
you know it was different back then we
2:05
had no no uh way of getting out of a
2:08
team if you had no um
2:10
free agency no no free agency you were
2:11
just stuck i mean and that was a bad
2:13
part and our team was known for being
2:15
very frugal and cheap i mean i don't
2:17
forget our general manager he said look
2:19
football players like horses you open
2:20
the gate they're going to run oh so wow
2:24
that's a direct quote wow
2:26
that was decided as i was yeah that
2:28
sounds very plantatious
2:36
[Laughter]
2:39
[Music]
2:41
[Laughter]
2:46
well how much has changed in your
2:47
opinion man we having these
2:48
conversations about diversity and it's
2:50
2022. uh you know it's changed something
2:53
the money has changed but you know the
2:55
narrative has not never changed you know
2:56
the thing is that they didn't want black
2:58
quarterbacks when i played they now they
3:00
accept it because you know you have to
3:02
have them they're such good athlete you
3:03
can't hide it right um they didn't want
3:05
black coaches you know that was that was
3:07
that was like a no-no
3:09
and it still is in a sense i mean yeah
3:10
because you know
3:12
i say this you think about
3:13
the league is they say seventy percent
3:15
black that league is eighty percent
3:16
eighty
3:18
and it's like if if if you say okay i go
3:20
to hbcu and you go there and it's two
3:24
black people and all white now you know
3:25
hbcu i mean and that's how the first
3:27
site the nfl is in a sense it's all
3:29
these brothers and they're coached by
3:31
whites look and it's not about the color
3:32
yeah it's about the opportunity and we
3:34
don't have the opportunity it's like if
3:35
it's ever going to change and i've said
3:37
this over and over it's ever going to
3:38
change
3:39
we have to have people in power and i
3:40
mean when i say power like being the uh
3:42
the
3:43
general managers
3:45
the commissioner like a black
3:46
commissioner and multiple black owners
3:48
not one three or four i mean that's
3:50
that's the only way it's going to change
3:51
and other than that it's gonna stay the
3:53
same it's like if i'm a plantation owner
3:54
i'm not gonna wake up one and say you
3:56
know what i feel bad i'm gonna let these
3:58
slaves go i'm gonna get out of here and
3:59
pick this goddamn myself right
4:02
you know it doesn't work like that work
4:04
like that yeah man well i have a mr
4:06
dickinson so we just got finished
4:07
talking to saquon barkley and he was
4:09
talking about you know mentors and and
4:11
mentorship and mental health and all
4:13
those different things did anybody
4:15
embrace you like when you came into the
4:17
league like was there another player who
4:19
just said come on rook i got you i'm
4:21
gonna show you the ropes did you have
4:22
that did people embrace you
4:24
yeah i said no i mean it wasn't it
4:26
wasn't like that i mean it really wasn't
4:27
because you think about it i mean i
4:28
could think about being a black man in
4:30
the 80s right
4:31
i mean you know how we are growing
4:33
growing up yeah mental health and then
4:35
they would say oh they're in the room
4:35
that boy you're just
4:41
when crazy was young i mean that's what
4:43
it was and it could have been something
4:44
else going on you know and i played with
4:46
players that had really mental issues
4:48
and but they had no no outlet they had
4:51
no one to talk to so what they go to
4:53
they go to drugs yeah
4:54
that was that was a big issue issue back
4:56
then but no i mean i wasn't like i was
4:58
saying in those days it was different
5:00
and you know some of the players were
5:02
really close really close with you know
5:03
and some a little older than me but i
5:04
didn't really have a mentor and but my
5:07
thing was my best mentor was was my
5:08
mother and my dad my dad passed when i
5:10
was 17 but my mother my mother was was
5:13
was my she was like look you know how we
5:15
raised you don't go out there and
5:16
embarrass yourself and don't embarrass
5:18
us and that was and that's just that
5:20
that's how i i approached the game eric
5:22
dickinson is hanging with us man
5:24
watching my smoke there dickinson story
5:26
is out now make sure you get it tracy
5:27
you want to ask him something yeah
5:29
absolutely i'm so happy i get to hear
5:30
your voice eric um have fun during this
5:33
weekend yeah i feel like you're probably
5:36
happy that when you did the new
5:38
celebrity apprentice that it was with
5:39
arnold schwarzenegger that's the whole
5:43
first issue for what some years back
5:45
with trump
5:46
just thinking about how politics has
5:48
become a part of our everyday
5:50
conversation but it may be curious since
5:53
you were quote unquote terminated what
5:55
is your um firing style like
5:58
are you can you do it easily
6:01
you know what i mean is it something
6:02
that just pulls at your heart like do
6:04
you have a long-winded narrative or do
6:06
you cut them right at the throat real
6:08
quick what is it like
6:10
well i said mister let's talk about when
6:12
i was on the apprentice man i was so
6:14
glad to get fired
6:16
i'll volunteer you know i'll take one
6:19
for the team why is that though man i
6:20
was so tired of that nonsense
6:24
he wanted to say
6:26
you said it yo you said it i thought
6:27
that you said it
6:29
you put it in heather's mind all right
6:30
you got it but you know i'm very upfront
6:33
people who know me know this about me if
6:35
you don't want the truth don't ask eric
6:36
because he'll tell you just like it is i
6:38
mean by myself i don't pull any punches
6:39
i've never tried to hurt anyone's
6:40
feelings but right i mean i just always
6:42
my dad had a sense son the truth ain't
6:44
popular but it is the truth yeah nothing
6:46
changes about that man well
6:47
congratulations on the book if if a lot
6:50
of athletes uh that are you know seeking
6:52
professional careers are to read this
6:54
book
6:55
and it's not just athletes just everyday
6:57
people you know striving in this society
6:59
what is it that you hoped they could
7:00
take away from it well one thing is like
7:03
you said you know we can control our
7:05
narrative now for me when i played i was
7:08
a villain i was a bad guy because i
7:10
asked to get paid right you know and
7:12
just you know
7:13
i was i always felt like that it's not
7:16
about being a star athlete it's about
7:17
being a better human being a person i
7:19
mean we're all all people you know i
7:21
mean people are called you got white
7:22
black so it's not about the your skin
7:24
color like you didn't choose your color
7:27
beautiful color
7:38
it's about everything it covers pretty
7:39
much everything in my life you know from
7:41
from beginning to end that i can
7:43
remember you know the years over you
7:45
know my my childhood my way i was raised
7:47
my parents and you know the ups and
7:49
downs of professional football and you
7:50
know some of the racist things that's in
7:52
there i mean i'll tell you one quick
7:53
story is that when i got to indianapolis
7:56
you know we used to make us go to the
7:57
christmas party the owner's christmas
7:59
party and uh it was in his barn and so
8:01
we had to go and he was he was an
8:03
alcoholic he was an alcoholic and he
8:05
comes up to me and two other guys and
8:07
he's drunk and he had his two handlers
8:10
and he proceeds to tell us a racial joke
8:12
i mean he said you got you got the
8:13
n-word you got a wet
8:15
and you got a
8:17
and a kite and now he said that and i'm
8:19
like
8:20
f this i'm like i'm out of here i mean
8:22
that's the kind of stuff that was going
8:23
on that people didn't know about and but
8:25
you know that's just that's the world we
8:27
live in and so you know i never said
8:29
anything about it then but like i said
8:30
all this stuff read the book read the
8:32
book read the book
8:33
man
8:34
hey man eric dickerson man i can't even
8:37
tell you
8:38
watching you play for so many years and
8:40
having you sit by me right now man and
8:42
i'm from oakland so i'm of course i'm a
8:43
raiders fan but
8:45
man it's amazing to have you here
8:47
absolutely let me tell you a story
8:48
brother i appreciate you man absolutely
8:51
eric dickinson make sure y'all follow
8:52
him at eric dickinson29 make sure you
8:54
get the book watch my smoke eric
8:56
dickinson story right now who you got
8:57
for the uh
8:59
who should i bet my money on for this uh
9:00
super bowl come on dog you know
9:02
okay there you go all right hey baby man
9:04
thank you for coming through man every
9:06
time man you are officially a citizen i
9:08
slay in the morning
9:10
dickinson y'all all right
9:12
we got terry from la he in the building
9:14
ring the bell
9:16
coming up next later
9:18
at some point all right all right
9:23
[Music]
9:35
you
#Sports