Eric Dickerson

“I was raised by my great-great aunt. I was adopted within our family. My mother had me when she was, I think, 15, 16. They tried to get her to have an abortion and she refused. So, my 'mama' adopted me, which was really her great aunt, which was really my great-great aunt, who was named Viola Dickerson. I was told that my mother was my sister.”

“I'll tell you one thing about me: I'm very private. I always have been private. People think I'm callous, arrogant. I didn't like the media attention.”

“She told me I wasn't playing for the coach, I was playing for myself.”

“I've stayed buddies with my old buddy Jackie Slater. I talk to Jackie Slater. I play golf with Marcus Allen a lot. I play golf with Marshall Faulk a lot. My buddy Craig Young, he lives up in New Mexico. I still talk to a lot of the guys.”

“I'm just not the outgoing bubble of energy. But if I know you, it's different. Practical jokes. Have fun. I'm not looking for any new friends. I got my friends.”

“When you look at guys who get recruited, most of the best athletes, they come from poor families. I don't forget. I was a junior looking through my mother's stuff and looked at her bank statement, and we had $30 in the bank.”

“In the NFL, you have a short shelf life. As a running back, if you're the first pick, and you're NFL life expectancy is only 3.5-6 years, your first big contract might not come until three years in - well, you might never get there. They need to get those signing bonuses up front because nothing is guaranteed.”

“I believe if I stay tall and run up high, I can see better.”

“I'd love to be in the Hall of Fame one day and win Super Bowl rings, or even one... and stay healthy.”

“The perfect fit for L.A. would be the St. Louis Rams. I really believe that. I know their stadium deal is about expired, or it is expired. They're working through that. I think it would be the old Los Angeles Rams in town.”

“Playing the running back position, your legs, that's your living, that's how you make your living. You have to have great thighs, knees, everything.”

“Them sportswriters don't even know how to put uniforms on, most of 'em.”

“I love being single. I can come and go as I please and stay out as late as I want to.”

“I don't love football the way I once loved the game. I don't look at it as fun anymore, and it definitely used to be fun. A lot of the fun has been taken away from it, I guess, because you go through so much on the field and off the field.”

“I run upright mostly when I see daylight, so if you watch film you'll see I don't get hit in the chest much.”

“I love golf. But do you know how I got good at golf? Because of Charles Barkley. I was playing with Charles, Michael Jordan and Roy Green, and Charles was talking so much trash. On every shot, he was talking trash. So I left the tournament, and I went and practiced for a year and half.”

“In the NFL they talk about 'contracts,' but it's not really a contract, it's a one year agreement. If you have a 10 year contract, it means nothing. If you get cut in the NFL, you get nothing. People don't talk about that.”

“Running is so natural to me. When I was running track, people used to ask me, 'When are you gonna start running hard?' The wind hits me in the face, and I feel so smooth... Man, I love to run!”

“Anything will worry me. I may not get a check for the light bill off in time and I just get to worrying. I'm a worrywart.”

“Most of the hits I take come on top of the shoulder pads.”