April 24, 2025 • 46 mins
Eric Dickerson joins us this hour are we talk about tonights NFL Draft. Eric and Rodney tell their draft-day stories.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, we continue on Fred Rogan Rodney Pete on a
five seventy LA Sports and tonight is the NFL Draft Night,
one of the extravaganza. It's the most fascinating thing. The
NFL has done such a magnificent job of promoting itself
and extending their brand that it is the time where
people tune in simply to see an announcement. For three hours,
(00:25):
they simply tune in to watch and see an announcement.
It is brilliant marketing and only the NFL could do it.
And because this is the night of the draft, a
special cameo unscheduled yes, appearance by the man who refers
to himself in the third person, Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Let that never go. Let that end, Eric, He's never
ever go. Let that die out.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The way he heard you talk about Eric Dickerson, E D.
And the third person you ain't know E D likes
this or no Eric Dickerson like this or what you know?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
What it is is Ed's way. Hey, no, no, that's
not true. I don't talk about that. That's how she's walking.
That's no. No, Eric, yourself in the third person, you
know this was saying, come on, man, afraid, you know,
I keep it on.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
He heard it once, he heard it once, and now
he's running with it. I'm really I'm like, when did
you hear that? I'm Ronnie, can you pull it up?
What is it.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hey? Fraid?
Speaker 4 (01:53):
First of all, I'm just doing a commercial. I'm just
doing a commercially. I do not talk about myself and
the third person. That's that's what they had me read.
That's why I did it. And I'm sure you have
read stuffing to put yourself in the third person.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, I have not.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Come on, come on, Kevin, find me something. Find me
something on Fred.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Hey and Fred Rogan's fifty year history of being on
TV and radio. I'm sure there is one moment or
there is a recording of Fred talking about himself and
the third person. Fred, you cannot tell us this. Tell
me one recording of you talking about.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, you know, Fred Rogan loves the now where we go,
Fred Rogan loved.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Fredgan. He loves some fried chicken. And when Fred Rogan
goes to so and so.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Fried chicken joint, he eats all the wings and press
and things he likes. Never but but riding see you
signed you you soignded too much like a brother.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
See Fred, Hi, I'm Fred Rogan. And and that's just
what I'd like to eat. I'd like my falaffels.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
And I just love a good old You know that
someone else pays f That is Fred Rogan's way.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Oh I love that though someone else pays. I really
I know you. I know you do. Damn right I do.
What's up? Man? Good see you guys.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
You got the accent, right, you got the accent right.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Good to see you, man, Good to see hey.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So we were talking about the drafts before we get
into like who's who and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
But we were talking wait wait, wait right, I got
one thing before we start talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
What in the world were you doing with that baseball glue?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
That's right, that's right. We haven't talked on it now,
we haven't so so so listen, man, you know listen.
First of all, Ed you went you went to Japan.
We talked about it when you took the family and
you had that first Japan. We had a lot of
conversations about what it's like and all that kind of
stuff over there, and you were amazing, and you know,
(04:05):
you and I feel the same way about that country
and that culture and everything about them is is incredible.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
And moved there. I would move there in a heartbeat.
But you know how it is.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
But so so in the stadium, man, in the Tokyo Dome,
they you know, they configure it so they made it
right for baseball, and they do play baseball there. But
what they did was they added they added some VIP
seats in that stadium, and so down the first baseline
(04:38):
behind the you know, behind the dugout, and a little
bit extended from the dugout on the first base side
and the third base side, they created five or six
more rows of seating and behind those rows it was
the official net like they have in the States, like
they have right now. They started doing like six years ago.
(05:00):
They put those netting up, so they have those nets
that are there. But then and the but in those
first six rows that they added, they didn't have the netting,
and so they what they did was in every single
one of those seats, and I think it was like
I think it was like one hundred on the left
field side and one hundred on the right field side,
(05:21):
they put a helmet and they put a glove in
every single seat of those of those additional seats, so
everybody had a chance. And the thing about it d
and you know, you know, because I know Penny and
I know who out things does you like, Ollie? So
during the game, because baseball is kind of you know,
(05:43):
you got a lot of lulls, and you got a
lot of time in between, people are on their phones.
They're they're talking, they're doing their texting, they're looking at
social media and all that stuff. And I told her,
I said, listen, if there's a left handed hitter coming up,
just be ready because it can come our and there's
no netting in front of us.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I got no netting. Netting is behind us, not in
front of us.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So be ready and take your you know, get off
the phone and just be ready to go. And sure enough,
the first night, nothing came close to us, right and
nothing happened. And was like, oh okay, And she was like, see,
you ain't nothing coming our way. Ain't nothing, I said, baby,
you never know when something's gonna come your way. You
gotta be ready. Just pay attention, a yeah, well whatever whatever, whatever,
(06:28):
all right. So sure enough, by the third inning, Ian
happ comes up for the Cubs and he's a switch hitter,
but he's hitting left handed. And I was like, okay,
here it comes. And the ball was hit and I
thought it was behind us. It was a nice high
fly ball, and the phone was Okay, I'm ready because
I got my glove on because I know a left
(06:48):
handed hitter.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I just got to be ready because I know she
not gonna be ready, so I'm gonna have to protect her.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
And the ball got hit, got hit up in the
air and had some spin on it.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I was like, oh wait, it's coming back.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
It's my way back, a little backspan, coming back my way,
come back my way, come back my way. And I
just reached out and caught it. And when I caught it,
because we were sitting in the third row right, we
weren't right up on on the on the fence.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
We were three were three rows back.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
So in order for somebody in play like Max was
to get it, he had to jump the fence and
get into the stands and get it. And when I
caught it, the look on her faced, the look on
her face was like, what the hell did you interfered
with Max Muntzi kitching the foul ball and making it out,
(07:43):
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Mind you, I'm like, looking at it, I'm protecting yours.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yes, I'm protecting your ass.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And you you yelling at me about interfering with Max,
and of course you know that. The the reaction from
Max was like, damn, damn, I could have got that.
I could have gotten Max looking at you like I
could have gotten your ball?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
He did.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
He looked at me with the stink guy like, oh
my god, I canid how could you do that?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I could have got that ball?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And thank god they had instant replayed that was playing
all over the place, and as I looked at it,
I was like, damn, I was first of all, I
was underneath his glove, and then he couldn't have gotten
it anyway because it was further away than it looked
like on TV. And I was like, dang, Thank god
I was vindicated, because I could not believe how many people,
(08:36):
oh my god, watching that game live at four o'clock
in the morning, La time, you know, being in you know,
me being in Japan here and all these getting all
these texts from people like what are you doing? You're
it's four o'clock in the morning in La What are
you doing texting me that I interfered with Max Muncie
And that was the thing that for the next hours,
(08:58):
like damn.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
She was like me, you you inter feared. What are
you doing? What are you doing? What are you that?
Speaker 4 (09:03):
That makes it because I got, I got, I got,
I got to tell you. I'm like, I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
That's it. I caught it.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I thank god I caught it, because if I missed it,
it would have been like another story.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
When he went to the airport the next day, he
was like a national hero.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I was people like the people over there do don't
miss a beat man.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I got to the airport because we left the next day,
and it turned out that the shot and the video
was on Okyo papers and stuff like that too, and
they didn't know who I was. But as it kind
of got going and got it out and people identified
and the Fox Sports people started doing it, then it
got out that I played football, and and I went
(09:52):
to the airport the next day and people were, as
I'm checking in, people like is this you?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
You? You're the one that you?
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
This is you? Like can you sign? Can you sign it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Man? It was absolutely nuts nuts, And then you know,
my my son is over there, lives over there. He's
like that you you are you are on uh you
are trending on Twitter, Tokyo Twitter, right.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
On Tokyo Twitter.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
You know, I'm not the Eric Diggers name right in football.
As soon as they hear NFL football player that catches
the foul ball.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Then they ran with that and they went crazy with that.
So he's like, yeah, you're on the you're Tokyo Twitter
Twitter trending.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
So so you so you're famous, and so you're famous.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
And I don't need to pay for a meal ever
in Japan.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I heard that. I heard that. That's all I wanted
to know. You asked my question. Thanks riding so.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
No, So what I was going to say is, man,
I was watching you know, they do all these things
leading up to the draft and all the history and
all that kind of stuff. Man, and I just want
to get you to kind of take us back to
your time because you were in the quote quarterback.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Draft, right, the greatest draft. Right.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
You were in the quarterback draft that that people go
back to this day and say it is the biggest
and the best quarterback draft that ever was in the
NFL with Elway and Marino and he's black legend. All
those guys that were you know, there were I think
there were like eight quarterbacks that were projected to go
in the first fifteen fifteen picks, and and you had
(11:34):
such an incredible college experience and you coming out that
it was crazy that it got almost overshadowed by all
these quarterbacks that everybody were fighting over, but more in
particularly John Elway saying he didn't want to play for Baltimore.
I'm not going to Baltimore, and that through, I'm sure
(11:54):
through everything in a frenzy because now Baltimore's got to
figure out that we're gonna take him, and we're gonna wait, staid,
who do we take next?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
We're gonna trade that, We're gonna trade everything.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
But the consensus was though that you were always gonna
be the next outside of the quarterback, You're gonna be
the next player pick, not running back, but the next
player pick. What was what was going through you and
your camp's mind, man, during that whole process of draft
day and my camp.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
That's funny, but we had no camps back then. Well really, Rodney,
it was it was going between I was one and two.
I was probably one or two, but more likely I
would be the second player taking, possibly third player taken.
And uh Airway was you know, you know, probably would
be the number one player taken for sure. Uh Marino
was in the top two or three also. But Dan dropped,
(12:44):
you know what he dropped because of well he smoked marijuana.
That was that was the big thing. He see, he
got he got high. But I mean Miami, Miami got
lucky in blackleg. I mean he didn't, I mean, he
didn't plant pan out. It was out of quarterbacks in
the draft, but it was a lot of great players,
not just quarterbacks. I mean, you got to think it
was Derek that draft. Roger Craig, I think mos but
it's a lot of I think we got more Hall
(13:04):
of Famers than any any other players in the draft,
bar in the draft. Matthews. Yeah, it's it's a lot
of guys that that in that draft. But how it
was going was that, let me see, Houston had the
number two pick and the Rams had the number three pick,
and I'd heard possibly if the Rams are gonna try
(13:25):
to flop flop with Houston to get me. That was
the kind of the running thing. And you know we
were I you know, it wasn't like it is now.
You just had no idea. So I'll never forget. You know,
I've worked out for some teams, ran forties and stuff
like that, and uh, finally I won't forget. It was
the night before the draft, you know, and then like
I said, it wasn't like it is now.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
It's not.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
You know, you didn't go down, you know, to the
to New York or whatever, you know, where you're suit
and all that kind of stuff. You know, the team
draft that they called you and if you can get
to the city, you know, then you go to the city.
So the Rams called me the night before. Jack Boston
called me. He said, Eric Dickerson. I said, yeah, this
is Eric. He says, I just want to let you
(14:04):
know that we're gonna draft you in the morning. We
met us trade with the Houston Orders, so we're gonna
draft you in the morning.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So we have a ticket for you out.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I think I think my flight leopard like eight in
the morning coming to going coming to LA from Dallas, Texas.
And I'll never forget it, so, you know, because you know,
they say one thing, but they might do something else.
So sure enough I'm in the car with my best friend.
We still best friend today. Charles Draydon.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
He take me to the airport. And so you're on
the way to the airport. I'm a way to that port.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I'm in the car, on the way to the airport,
in the car, and so because I'm I'm flying in,
but I'm turning around coming right back because I didn't
want to stay in LA. I mean, you know what
I want to come back for so I can have it,
so I could party a little bit, go out. So
so sure enough I'm on the way to the airport
and we hear that the Colts had drafted John Elway
(14:53):
took John Airway to the number one pick. And then
I sure it was gonna do it, John. I was
gonna play blah blah blah. And then they said, well,
Rams on the clock. I mean it was quick, and
they said, wow, the Los Angeles Rama took a very
quick pick. They take running back Eric Dickerson out of
Southern Methodist University, and I never forget my boy said congratulations.
I'm like wow, I mean it was a trip. I
(15:13):
mean really, I get to the airport, people congratulated. Now, man, congratulations, man,
I wish you had been a cowbober Man. Congratulations, I
said thanks.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So when I got to LA, people at the airport
already oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Knew y you know, because the draft was you know,
it was it was I don't know where it was at,
but you know, I guess New York, I guess.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
But it was definitely televised.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
So it was televised because it started early. Because remember
it was it was like it was like twelve rounds.
It was.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It was, yeah, twelve rounds.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
It was twel it was twelve rounds.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
So when I got to that, I flew to l A.
I won't forget.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Guy named Raysed san Jose picked me up and we're
driving to Ounch County. I'm thinking, because I've been to
LA before. Hold on, hold on, hold on. His real
name was Ray san Jose.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, Ray san Jose.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
And you know we we know we called we called
him he's a what you said, he's a he's a
you know you know what we called him.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
He's a he's a he's a ram. Say he's a ram.
He's a ram. He's he's him, he's a man. I
like call him. I was nickname called him. He's a
he's a ram.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
So anyway, so soname man, yeah, and I just I
saw I saw raised daughter and not long ago that
John Robinson's going celebrate the life thing a couple of
months a couple of months ago. But I like Ray Sanose.
So anyway, we're driving and I'm like, I don't really
know California l A, but's l A behind us. Because
(16:40):
I'm looking at you know we're going. I'm like, he said,
oh yeah, he said, we're in Orange County. I said,
what's Orange County? I had no clue. He said, well,
the Rams in Orange County. So we get out the
Orange County. Never forget when they get there. I mean,
I mean John Robinson grease me, and Georgia greased me,
and Jack Fagner, and I'll never forget John Robinson the
first thing he said, and we got you because he
(17:01):
recruited me coming out of high school, and I forgot
about that. He recruited me, come out, come out, come
out of a sea high to go to SC So,
you know, we did the press conference and I'm holding
up my picked my jersey, you know, and then asked me,
you know, I'm gonna say, can I want to say
a few words? And I picked number twenty shop, I'm
holding up number twenty five. You look up my draft day,
I'm holding up number twenty five. That's my number.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
That why twenty five? Why were you order twenty five?
I'll tell you that story too.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
They didn't now running back. I mean it was numbers
were slotted back then, right right, right, right right.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
You have to wear twenty to forty nine to be
a running back, right like one tonight one to nineteen
was a quarterback and a kicker, right. I said, I said,
what numbers do you have? He said, mister, heuld say,
you can't what nineteen? I said, what numbers you have?
He said, we got twenty five, twenty nine, thirty two,
thirty four and forty nine. And I just like I said,
(17:52):
I just take twenty five. So I took number twenty
five and I'm holding up in La times. And so
the press conference been good. You know, I spoke. I
remember tell him. I said, hey, I'm I knew the
Rams were bad. They had a bad football, they had
a bad year. And I said, I'm no savior. I'm
just here just to play football. I told him, I'm
no savity. I just want to play football and enjoy
enjoyed my being in LA And so after the press conference,
(18:15):
you know, we talked and stuff and like that, and
I flew back to I flew back to Dallas that
that evening, my boy picked up. My boy picked me up,
Charles picked me up. And so this is how he said.
So he said, hey, said, were talking, said, man, what
numbers you take?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Nineteen?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
I said, no, I took twenty five. He said twenty five.
Why you take that slow ass number. That's a slow number.
I'm like, I'm like, man, you right, I'm like you right,
that number two seems slow. He said, why don't you
take nineteen? And I told him you can't take nineteen.
And they said, what numbers they have? I told them
they had twenty five, forty nine, thirty two, twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
He said, why do you take twenty nine. I'm like, oh.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Yeah, now stack check this out right. So we go
to a club that night. We go to a club.
I cannot stop thinking about changing my number. Seriously, it's
just driving me crazy. So we at the club, you know,
people look congratulating me and buying getting buying me drinking.
That's one of the first times that I'd ever really
been drunk. I mean because I wasn't a real drinker.
I mean I got drunk. I mean I got o.
(19:15):
I'm like, whoa, wow, this ain't for me. So anyway,
so the next morning I called back to the rams
at like seven o'clock. It was nine o'clock dollar seven.
They weren't even open yet. So I called me the
voice man. I said, I don't think that's until like
nine o'clock. So I called back again and I speke
to speak to the secondary. I said, hey, can I
miss speak to mister Hewittt. She said who's calling? I said,
Eric Dickison, Oh, Eric, congratulations and she said thank you,
(19:37):
I said, She said, what can I do for you?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Justic?
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Can I speak to mister Hughwitt said? Okay, now you
know you missed. Do you know misster Don Hewett not
Don Hewitt? So I said, mister Hewittt, Hey this Eric Digison.
He said, how you doing?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Eric?
Speaker 4 (19:47):
You saying graduation? You know you old you old school guy.
I said, hey, mister Hewittt. I said, uh, I want
to talk to about see it by changing my number,
I said, I want to change my number to number
twenty nine. He said, Eric. He said, I'm telling you son.
He said, you can't do that. He said, you have
number twenty five in l a time, so that's the
number of you stuck. I didn't say nothing. To sit
there for a minute. I said, I'll tell you what.
(20:08):
Then I said, if I don't change of twenty nine,
I ain't coming.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
You did you went yard ball like that? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I said, I'm not constantz eight. Wow, I'm not coming.
He said, Okay, you'll be twenty nine. So that's how.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's how Betty did say that. Betty did say that.
It was hard. I love mister Hewett. He was and
it's son, Todd. I know. I just saw tired too.
It's good to see see everybody. But yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
That's how my draft they went.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So you know it's just different now different, all right,
all day or boss you sorry, go to a break
ride here and come back. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
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Speaker 2 (21:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Rodney's draft day decidedly different than Eric's And we'll talk
about that next.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, right on, right on, right on, right on, right on.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
It is.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
A Thursday Draft Day in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Rodney P. Fred Rogan and the Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
All right, Eric, I appreciate you, uh sharing that story
story about draft day.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And you know, and and and and them, you know, you.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Know, talking about you know, where it was going and
all that kind of stuff. Man, did you get caught
up into any of that hype on the quarterback side
with it, with whether it be you know, with l
Way and him holding out and saying I'm gonna play
baseball with the Yankees instead of going to Baltimore, or
Dan Marino dropping in the draft and which we could
still do this. They couldn't believe he got he dropped
(22:04):
to like twenty eighth pick or whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
It was last year with some of these other guys.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Did you get caught up in any of that or
were you just ready or again, were there any teams
that you were like, man like l Wait, I ain't
going to Baltimore. I don't not want to go here.
I'm not please, don't draft me. Were there teams like
that for you?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Yeah, were some teams. I mean, you know, it really
didn't matter in some sense because you know, I never
played play I never thought i'd be playing pro football,
So it just kind of happened.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
You know. It's not like these.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Kids today, like you kind of have an idea where
you're going and all that kind of stuff. It was
kind of still speculation. You just really didn't didn't know.
I knew I didn't want to, and I was from Texas,
knew I didn't want to play for the Oilers.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I didn't want to. I want.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I didn't want to stay at home. Uh, and I
wanted to stay at home. I didn't want to stay.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I want.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
I wanted to. I want to get out of it.
Even if it was the Cowboys. You didn't want to
stay at home?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Nah, I didn't. I didn't like the Cowboys, but I
mean I didn't, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I'll tell you I wanted to play for the Rams,
you know, And I told you I even like the Rams.
I like the helmets, right, I love their uniforms. Man,
I'm telling like, I like that horn. I mean to me,
you know, back in them days, you know, especially if I
didn't think about when you're young, uniform was big.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I mean, that was big.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
The uniform. Think the uniform was sweet, Like I look
at my I got my SFU helmet up here right
now and my dad. Our uniform was sweet, I mean,
and the RAMS uniform was just so good looking. Man,
I'm like, I mean, I thought, I look good in
this uniform. Really, I can't, I can't lie. I mean
the oriason for played good, look good, you played good?
(23:33):
That was that was my motto. But yeah, no, I
didn't get caught up in that kind of stuff. I
was just worried about, you know, playing and you know,
trying to you know, and I was thinking because back then, right,
I mean, really, I'm thinking, I just want to try
to make the team, not not knowing that you were
number one draft pick, so you're gonna make the team
because I remember saying that the cancer and I just
want to make the team.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Like, man, you gonna make the team the first pick.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
You ain't gonna gonna gay, I gonna cut you.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
All right, Let's let's talk about what you want. Because
it was very different than what Eric went through. Your Yeah,
extremely different different.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
As Eric mentioned, you know, there were twelve rounds back then,
and you know, there was a it was a first
day and then there was a second day, and usually
the first day where you know, it was the first
you know, first six rounds went the first day and
sometimes I think it went six and a half depending
on how it was going. Uh, you got through the
(24:26):
first six and a half rounds the first day, and
then they resumed it and it and it started on
a Sunday, So it was Sunday money right, Monday, right, yeah,
it was Sunday Monday. So it wasn't these this you
know primetime Thursday night deal like they're doing now. Uh,
So Sunday morning and and then uh, you know throughout
the day, so you're sitting on pent and needles and
(24:49):
if you didn't get drafted, you go to to Monday morning.
So you know, for me, and it was like Eric said,
it's different back then. You know, you did workouts and
you had your own workout for teams, and but it
was like really collectively you had a thing going on.
And you know, he had a workout day at USC
which I had, and there were fifteen to eighteen NFL
(25:13):
teams came out and they sent their you know, head
coach coordinator, scouts and all that stuff, and and then.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
So you know, you worked out for them.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
You know, aside from from doing what you did at
the combine and leading up to the draft, there there
wasn't a whole lot of meetings, right, There wasn't a
whole lot of come on in to this to the team,
and we're gonna do the thing, and you know, sit down,
come for come for two days, and then we're gonna
wind and dine you and and see what your knowledge
(25:42):
is or we'll see if you like the city and
all that.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
There was none of that.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
You know, nowadays they bring guys in that they don't
even think about they're not even thinking about drafting, but
they'll bring them in for two days just to get
their personality and figure out if they liked the kid
or not.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
But that didn't happen back then.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
It was really phone calls, Hey, what do you think
about this? Or you know, just tell me, you know
some of them are crazy. Give me three of your
top your top plays or your favorite plays that you
like and why you like him. And then that would
be the extent of a phone call that you would
have with the head coach or the offensive coordinator. So
(26:24):
it wasn't like there was a lot, a whole lot
of indication of oh they really like me or they
don't like me, and most of them say, oh yeah,
we like you, would like you, would like you. So
I had no idea on draft day of who was
going to draft me. I got calls from you know,
different teams leading up to draft day, but I had
no idea. And in that draft, you know, everybody knew
(26:45):
Troy Aikman was going to be the number one pick.
I think he in fact, I think he signed. I
think I think he signed the night of the draft.
You know, you can't do that with the guys, you
can't sign people before. But I think everybody knew he
was going to number one pick in Dallas, had already
had a deal worked out with him before you know,
draft even happened, So he was always going to be
(27:07):
the number one pick. There was a debate on who
was gonna be second, third, or fourth and in that draft,
which was pretty cool. I go back and look at
that draft class and in that draft class was Barry
Sanders out of Oklahoma State.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
He came out early. He was a junior, so he
came out early.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
UH Dion Sanders out of Florida State, Roderick Thomas, who
was a good defensive outside linebacker.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, and and then Derek Thomas came out of Alabama.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Roderick was from Nebraska, Derek was from Alabama, So it
was kind.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Of a loaded uh.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Donnel Woolford was his second best corner outside of Dion
uh coming out of Clemson.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
So Hartley Dykes was a big time receiver.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So there were a number of names coming out in
that uh, in that draft, and and for me when
they started listing different quarterbacks, because you know, you you know,
for me at least, I you know, you pay attention.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Uh, Okay, who could possibly go before me?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Who who's the other guys out there that that may
pose a threat if a team wants a quarterback, are
they going to take this guy or they gonna.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Take him over me? Whoever?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
So I knew all the names of the other quarterbacks
that were in that draft that year, and I was
so confident, I guess and probably naive to that point
that thinking that, Okay, if Troy is going number one,
if Troy Aikman is going to be the number one pick,
then I can't beat too far behind. Because we had
(28:40):
comparable stats we played against each other, we played in
the same conference, same competition. Uh we had we had
beaten him twice in the last two years in games
that were meaningful that determined who was going to go
to the to the Rose Bowl, and our team beat
them back to back years. So I was like, Okay,
(29:02):
you canna love Troy, but I'm right there on it
on his heels in terms of the next quarterback taken.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
And so I'm feeling that way.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
And then and then you start to listen to some
of the other commentaries. Uh, you know, again not like
it is today, but they're different. Male Kuiper was back
then and they were going through the boards of quarterbacks
and my name kept throwing out there getting thrown out
there as that you know, after after eight men. Uh
maybe it's Arizona who had an early pick or Green
(29:29):
Bay who had an early pick that would draft me.
And uh so I was, you know, I was kind
of looking forward to to draft day and then you
wake up and again Dallas wasted no time in taking Troy.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
I think it went one second off the clock.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
They said, okay, Dallas, Cowboys take and so it was
off to the races after that.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
And then green Bay took Tony Manderidge off.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah. Remember Tony Mandridge still Madrid who got you know,
infamously Stone has the sterteroid guy.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Uh, Tony Mandridge out of Michigan State and they took him.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Green Bay took him.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And then the third pick in the draft, the Detroit
Lions take Barry Sanders.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I was like, okay, okay, Barry. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Everybody thought Barry's gonna be you know, him and Aikman
could be closed. But they knew Aikman was going, but
they nobody saw Tony Mandridge being the second pick in
the draft, and so they picked him, and they picked
Berry Detroit Big Berry. And then Domino start following on
defensive side, with Derrick Thomas going to Kansas City and
(30:41):
Broderick Thomas, you know, I think he went to Tampa
Bay or something like that. And so the first round
keeps going and there are no other quarterbacks being taken,
and I'm thinking, I gotta be somewhere around coming up soon.
I gotta, you know, I gotta something's got to happen
on my phone or somebody's gonna give me an alert
(31:02):
that they may take me.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
It didn't happen.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
The second round comes around, and the Green Bay Packers
on the clock again and they take uh kid named
Anthony Dilwig. And see how I know these names, because yeah,
I know everybody. Anthony Dilwick. I got a duke, you know,
he was a quarterback, got a duke that I had
(31:27):
barely heard of. And the Green Bay Packers take him
with the first pick of the second round, and I'm like, oh, wow, okay, okay,
I didn't want to play in Green Bay anyway.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
It's too cold. You got that out? Want to play
in green Bay? The hell with green Bay. I want
to play with him anyway.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
And then it just kept going and kept going into
the second round. There's two other quarterbacks taken, and then
the third and the third round hits and I was like,
I got to go in the third.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Round at least.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
And two other quarterbacks get taken in the second or
the third and fourth round, and then it goes and
goes and goes, and by the fifth round, I'm like,
I gotta go somewhere. Something's happening sometime, and it didn't happen,
and four more quarterbacks get taken in the fifth round,
(32:22):
you know, and I know that in the draft at
that time, twelve rounds, the first sixth rounds are done
the first day, and the last six rounds are done
the next day. So they're winding down on that first
day and it gets to be the you know, the
middle of the sixth round on the first day, and
my name is not called, and they close it out
(32:46):
and say, we will resume the draft tomorrow morning. Monday
is Monday. Yeah, we're going to resume it Monday morning
at eight am. And I had not been drafted. Wow,
And it was the longest, longest night of my life.
And I didn't care at that point, you know, a
d He was like, I just want to know someone
(33:09):
give me, tell me, tell me where I'm going. I'll
go compete with anybody. Just just give me a team
to go play for. And that didn't happen, and I,
you know, didn't sleep that night. And what made it
worse was my mom was with me, and my mom
was hanging out.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We were all together kind of getting ready. I didn't
do you know, I didn't do the big party or
anything like that.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Uh, but I had my mom and my cousin and
a couple other people that were hanging with me, and uh,
that didn't happen, and it was like it was the
most devastating awkward time. I think that I can remember
having the people in the room, especially my mom.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
My mom was crying the whole time, the whole night,
she was crying.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
She cannot believe that nobody wanted to take me and
h and so that.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Was start on me.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I can you know, I you know, as a kid,
you know you can handle anything, but your mama crying
that was that was hard to take. And uh So
the next day starts and hadn't slept all night long,
and the first call I got because Detroit had the
second pick of the sixth round and they called me.
(34:26):
Wayne Fons called me and said we're gonna take you.
And they ended up taking me. Uh I remember it
was like eight o seven, eight o seven on Pacific
time that my phone rang. And then uh he said, yeah,
we we just take We just took you, you know,
and be a de trend line.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Get ready to get on the plane, come out here
out here.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
And so I got on the plane and went to Detroit, man,
and I was like, you know, it was bittersweet because
that was like finally, thank you, I'm I'm done with
that process. I'm drafting, I go compete with anybody. I
don't care, you know, just give me on the team.
I go compete.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And uh, the hardest part was not knowing if anybody
was gonna take it.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
And thank god, Detroit they That's why I still got
love for Detroit to this day because they they they're
the ones that did take the chance on me and
allow me to go play.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
So I love.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Them, you know, to this day, because I didn't know
if they didn't take me, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
If anybody else would them.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I had no idea, but they did, and uh, I
was I was happy. But I definitely went in, you know,
at that point with a chip on my shoulder, going, Okay,
I gotta I gotta prove.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I got to prove some folks wrong, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
So it was it was a very very difficult day
for me, but in the long run, it turned out
to be a blessing because it gave me a lot
of motivation to uh, to prove that that a lot
of teams made a mistake. And you know, looking up,
there were nine quarters backs taken before me, nine taken
(36:03):
before me, and that.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
What was the guy's name?
Speaker 1 (36:05):
You said, hold on, hold on, hold on, Let's finish
this on the other side. Let's keep going. Okay, all right,
we'll continue with Eric and Rodney. All right, Fred Rogan,
Rodney Pe, Eric Dickerson, Uh Rodney and Eric shared their
draft day stories.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yes to both of you.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I mean, it's a moment you'll never forget. And really
it's a moment that changed both of your lives.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Fair, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, because it's a it's the moment
that you you know, you grow up, you know Fred
thinking about and there's a moment that comes about.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I don't know what age is.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's different for everybody, but you start playing football and
whether it be Pop Warner or middle school or high school,
and then you start, you know, you play in college
and go late.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I got a shot. I got a shot to play
in the prose. Man.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Let me let's see what Let's see what happened. Man,
I got a shot to play the pros. Let's go
for this thing and you do that. And for me,
it was went from I got a definite shot to
play the prose and I can't wait to get there too.
(37:18):
They don't think I'm good enough to playing the pros. Yeah,
you know, they don't. They don't think I'm they don't
think I'm I can handle playing in the pros because
I played in college against the best competition and held
my own and all of a sudden, now they're thinking
that I'm not good enough to play against the competition
(37:39):
at at the next level. So that put it that
put a tremendous chip on my shoulder. And at that time,
I was playing baseball too at college. I was playing
you know, baseball USC and and at that time baseball
uh in college, especially in the pack and it was
Pack ten at that time. The competition was was it
(38:00):
intents and was real to the point where the many
equated it to you know, playing in the minor leagues
and playing in Double A or Triple A in the
minor leagues, because when you play teams like Stanford and
Arizona State and Arizona and and Cal and U C.
L A and all those teams on a regular basis,
it is like playing in the minor leagues because the
(38:23):
quality of talent is there. You know, you rattle I
can rattle off all the names that I played against
in college, which are you know, Barry Bonds and and uh,
Michael you know, Mike Devereux and uh at Arizona State
and ode B McDowell. If people don't know who he is,
he would have been the best college players ever. Uh
(38:44):
they played at Arizona State, you know, uh, you know, uh,
you know, Cactus Jack McDowell was a pitcher at Stanford,
you know, you know, Uh, God, I can rattle off
the pictures at Stanford too, that were that were there.
Alex Sander Chess, Eric Carroll's played at UCLA. There were
(39:04):
a number I played with Randy Johnson, who was our
pitcher in our age when I was a freshman at USC.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
All these guys.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Brett Boone was my second baseman when I played third
base at USC and that can go on and on
and on of guys that went on to play in
the league that played in the Pack you know, Pack
ten at that time.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
So the competition was great.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
So when I didn't get drafted high and I got
drafted in the sixth round, like, you know, what, the
hell with this, I'm gonna go play baseball. I'm gonna
try to go play baseball forget this. And so I
got really intense about working out for the Oakland A's
who had drafted me, and I was like, let's go,
let's go try for this thing. But in the back
(39:46):
of my mind, I was thinking, man, they really don't think.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
I can play quarterback in the league, and.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
I'd be doing myself a disservice if I don't go
try it, or if I don't go, really just give
it everything. I got to go play quarterback and prove
these people wrong because.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
They don't think I can do it.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
And that one out over me just going and I
want to say as a cop out, but me just saying,
for good football, I'm gonna go play baseball because you
drafted me.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Low.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I was like, no, no, I'm gonna play football because
I think I can play, and I'm gonna show you
that I can't play, which is why football went on
to play. And then look up and see that all
of those cats, other than Troy Aiightman, you know, all
of them only played tops three years in the league.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Troy and all.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
The quarterbacks drafted before me at most played three years
in the league, and Troy and I were the only
ones that played more than four years in the league.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
What do you never know? What? What?
Speaker 4 (40:55):
What did you get drafted in?
Speaker 2 (40:56):
What did you get.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Drafted ninety and eighteen eighteen, not that Allen nineteen eighty,
nineteen eighty nine, eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah, you know, did you ever asked Rodney? You know,
years later and I'm just curious why you were selected
when you were Did you ever ask anybody that?
Speaker 3 (41:19):
I didn't ask Red, but everybody, most people knew, a
lot of people knew, and it was very clear that
at that time there was.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Not a whole lot of black quarterbacks. That is exactly
what I Yeah, it was not. There was not been
a black quarterbacks at that time. When I was drafted.
It was Warn Moon him Wonder Moon, and that was it.
That was it. That was it. That was it. That
was it.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Yeah, there was there was no other. Yeah, there were
no other black quarterbacks at that time. And there was
still that stigma as black quarterbacks really couldn't run a
team or win a championship. And you know, for whatever
reason they threw it out out there, it was like
they're not leaders or we can't handle the leadership role
and the load is too hell off.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
All that that wasn't about. It was all about right,
and we.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
Came out of the thing that they said that the
black the black player was not smart enough. That's that's
why they weren't intelligent enough. I mean, and that's why
asked last what the year you came in? Because yeah,
I mean it was a lot. Like I asked Warren
this a year ago and I never asked him. I said,
I said, man, why did you go to the USFL?
I mean, uh, football? Canadian footballer? He said, Eric, he said,
(42:38):
they didn't want me to play quarterback. He said, don't
want to put me the receiver or or our defensive back.
He said, I didn't want to play that because we
had a chance. We had a chance to get warn
when we got Dee the Brock, you know, and and
we took Dee the Brock instead.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Of about that was smart about that for you? Eric?
You're looking up going we got a chance to get
warn Moon and.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
If I had the brock, if I if I had
a one moon and you kidding me, man, you know
what that been.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
I just want to I want to share it with
you guys.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
I'm looking at I'm looking at when when I would
draft class came out, and uh, you know it was
twenty to twenty eight teams back then, and this is
what this was. The comments after every player. I ain't
gonna go to all of them. If Baltimore coach John
l Way may go to the Yankees, that's what it says.
Eric Dickerson, top runner, UH Kurt Warner with the third pick,
(43:26):
best ever at Penn State. It's just all these comes up.
That's that's the comments. Some guys like Bruce Matthews, fine
past blocker. I mean, it was just you know this,
this is how they looked at us. I mean, Gabriel
gabrievera from he played at UH, when he played Texas
Tech Red Raiders, they said, just put three hundred pounders.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
That's all they put. At the end of it. It's
like it was.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
It was way way different. But yeah, that's that's that's
the reason. I just want to know.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
It was nobody wanted to talk about it. Nobody wanted
to talk about it, Fred just being straight up. Nobody
wanted to talk about it. But at that time, it
was still and this is nineteen eighty nine, there was
still UH that stigma, that that prejudice that a black
(44:15):
quarterback could not lead a team to a championship.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
And this was reminded. Remember this is just.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Two years two years after Doug Williams took me the
Washington that time, Redskins to the to the Super Bowl
championship and set records in that championship game.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
And do you know they were not happy about that
because they had I mean and John that Way came
in out of my same thing. I like John, but
they had it all set for John to go to
Disneyland and everything, and they didn't, you know, and they
didn't even do it with with who wanted.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
They didn't do the pre commercial with Doug.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Yeah, Doug, they didn't do the predn't even I remember that.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
Doug doesn't talk about that whole lot. But yeah, you're
absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
They did, you know, they we notice, we know, you know,
these things pre you know, they pre pre tape them
just in case one side wins or the other side wins.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
And they did a whole campaign with John Elway. Hey,
what are you gonna do after you win? You just
super Bowl?
Speaker 3 (45:22):
I'm going to Disneyland, I'm going to Didney World, I'm
going to this And they did all of that for John.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
O'Way and that's nothing for nothing. Doug Williams, Yeah, anything,
Doug Way, It's good.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
I'm good.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
I'm glad to see the league has changed in some
ways for that. I mean, because now you have to
have a not even a black quarterback. You got to
have a guy that can run and throw. You got
to have that, guys. I mean, if you ain't got
that guy, I mean, which was condemned back in the day.
Though oh yeah, yo, really he runs too much. He runs,
he runs too much. So but yeah, I mean, I
(45:56):
don't want to beat there. And we can keep going
on the drift all that. So let's talk about it.
Let's let's let's talk about some of the drafts we're
gonna talk about. Let's talk about some guys get drafted.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
We're talking about what Eric, Eric, don't you you want
to continue? I thought you had to know.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
I got a way to go. I got I got,
I got nowhere to go.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
So Eric, when you got picked, when you got picked
for the Rams, you said, you know, cool way cool.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Wait wait, Eric, you're gonna stay, said Eric, You're not
going nowhere?
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Eric stayed, we got here, or break.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Well, you're more than welcome to the stairs long as you all.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
He can't go nowhere now he's all locked in. Well,
I gotta talk about this draft. I want to talk
about the draft. What I got to think at five o'clock. Anyway,
we'll do it on the other side, Okay.
Okay, we continue on Fred Rogan Rodney Pete on a
five seventy LA Sports and tonight is the NFL Draft Night,
one of the extravaganza. It's the most fascinating thing. The
NFL has done such a magnificent job of promoting itself
and extending their brand that it is the time where
people tune in simply to see an announcement. For three hours,
(00:25):
they simply tune in to watch and see an announcement.
It is brilliant marketing and only the NFL could do it.
And because this is the night of the draft, a
special cameo unscheduled yes, appearance by the man who refers
to himself in the third person, Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Let that never go. Let that end, Eric, He's never
ever go. Let that die out.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The way he heard you talk about Eric Dickerson, E D.
And the third person you ain't know E D likes
this or no Eric Dickerson like this or what you know?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
What it is is Ed's way. Hey, no, no, that's
not true. I don't talk about that. That's how she's walking.
That's no. No, Eric, yourself in the third person, you
know this was saying, come on, man, afraid, you know,
I keep it on.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
He heard it once, he heard it once, and now
he's running with it. I'm really I'm like, when did
you hear that? I'm Ronnie, can you pull it up?
What is it.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hey? Fraid?
Speaker 4 (01:53):
First of all, I'm just doing a commercial. I'm just
doing a commercially. I do not talk about myself and
the third person. That's that's what they had me read.
That's why I did it. And I'm sure you have
read stuffing to put yourself in the third person.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, I have not.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Come on, come on, Kevin, find me something. Find me
something on Fred.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Hey and Fred Rogan's fifty year history of being on
TV and radio. I'm sure there is one moment or
there is a recording of Fred talking about himself and
the third person. Fred, you cannot tell us this. Tell
me one recording of you talking about.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, you know, Fred Rogan loves the now where we go,
Fred Rogan loved.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Fredgan. He loves some fried chicken. And when Fred Rogan
goes to so and so.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Fried chicken joint, he eats all the wings and press
and things he likes. Never but but riding see you
signed you you soignded too much like a brother.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
See Fred, Hi, I'm Fred Rogan. And and that's just
what I'd like to eat. I'd like my falaffels.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
And I just love a good old You know that
someone else pays f That is Fred Rogan's way.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Oh I love that though someone else pays. I really
I know you. I know you do. Damn right I do.
What's up? Man? Good see you guys.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
You got the accent, right, you got the accent right.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Good to see you, man, Good to see hey.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So we were talking about the drafts before we get
into like who's who and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
But we were talking wait wait, wait right, I got
one thing before we start talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
What in the world were you doing with that baseball glue?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
That's right, that's right. We haven't talked on it now,
we haven't so so so listen, man, you know listen.
First of all, Ed you went you went to Japan.
We talked about it when you took the family and
you had that first Japan. We had a lot of
conversations about what it's like and all that kind of
stuff over there, and you were amazing, and you know,
(04:05):
you and I feel the same way about that country
and that culture and everything about them is is incredible.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
And moved there. I would move there in a heartbeat.
But you know how it is.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
But so so in the stadium, man, in the Tokyo Dome,
they you know, they configure it so they made it
right for baseball, and they do play baseball there. But
what they did was they added they added some VIP
seats in that stadium, and so down the first baseline
(04:38):
behind the you know, behind the dugout, and a little
bit extended from the dugout on the first base side
and the third base side, they created five or six
more rows of seating and behind those rows it was
the official net like they have in the States, like
they have right now. They started doing like six years ago.
(05:00):
They put those netting up, so they have those nets
that are there. But then and the but in those
first six rows that they added, they didn't have the netting,
and so they what they did was in every single
one of those seats, and I think it was like
I think it was like one hundred on the left
field side and one hundred on the right field side,
(05:21):
they put a helmet and they put a glove in
every single seat of those of those additional seats, so
everybody had a chance. And the thing about it d
and you know, you know, because I know Penny and
I know who out things does you like, Ollie? So
during the game, because baseball is kind of you know,
(05:43):
you got a lot of lulls, and you got a
lot of time in between, people are on their phones.
They're they're talking, they're doing their texting, they're looking at
social media and all that stuff. And I told her,
I said, listen, if there's a left handed hitter coming up,
just be ready because it can come our and there's
no netting in front of us.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I got no netting. Netting is behind us, not in
front of us.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So be ready and take your you know, get off
the phone and just be ready to go. And sure enough,
the first night, nothing came close to us, right and
nothing happened. And was like, oh okay, And she was like, see,
you ain't nothing coming our way. Ain't nothing, I said, baby,
you never know when something's gonna come your way. You
gotta be ready. Just pay attention, a yeah, well whatever whatever, whatever,
(06:28):
all right. So sure enough, by the third inning, Ian
happ comes up for the Cubs and he's a switch hitter,
but he's hitting left handed. And I was like, okay,
here it comes. And the ball was hit and I
thought it was behind us. It was a nice high
fly ball, and the phone was Okay, I'm ready because
I got my glove on because I know a left
(06:48):
handed hitter.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I just got to be ready because I know she
not gonna be ready, so I'm gonna have to protect her.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
And the ball got hit, got hit up in the
air and had some spin on it.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I was like, oh wait, it's coming back.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
It's my way back, a little backspan, coming back my way,
come back my way, come back my way. And I
just reached out and caught it. And when I caught it,
because we were sitting in the third row right, we
weren't right up on on the on the fence.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
We were three were three rows back.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
So in order for somebody in play like Max was
to get it, he had to jump the fence and
get into the stands and get it. And when I
caught it, the look on her faced, the look on
her face was like, what the hell did you interfered
with Max Muntzi kitching the foul ball and making it out,
(07:43):
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Mind you, I'm like, looking at it, I'm protecting yours.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yes, I'm protecting your ass.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And you you yelling at me about interfering with Max,
and of course you know that. The the reaction from
Max was like, damn, damn, I could have got that.
I could have gotten Max looking at you like I
could have gotten your ball?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
He did.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
He looked at me with the stink guy like, oh
my god, I canid how could you do that?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I could have got that ball?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And thank god they had instant replayed that was playing
all over the place, and as I looked at it,
I was like, damn, I was first of all, I
was underneath his glove, and then he couldn't have gotten
it anyway because it was further away than it looked
like on TV. And I was like, dang, Thank god
I was vindicated, because I could not believe how many people,
(08:36):
oh my god, watching that game live at four o'clock
in the morning, La time, you know, being in you know,
me being in Japan here and all these getting all
these texts from people like what are you doing? You're
it's four o'clock in the morning in La What are
you doing texting me that I interfered with Max Muncie
And that was the thing that for the next hours,
(08:58):
like damn.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
She was like me, you you inter feared. What are
you doing? What are you doing? What are you that?
Speaker 4 (09:03):
That makes it because I got, I got, I got,
I got to tell you. I'm like, I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
That's it. I caught it.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I thank god I caught it, because if I missed it,
it would have been like another story.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
When he went to the airport the next day, he
was like a national hero.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I was people like the people over there do don't
miss a beat man.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I got to the airport because we left the next day,
and it turned out that the shot and the video
was on Okyo papers and stuff like that too, and
they didn't know who I was. But as it kind
of got going and got it out and people identified
and the Fox Sports people started doing it, then it
got out that I played football, and and I went
(09:52):
to the airport the next day and people were, as
I'm checking in, people like is this you?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
You? You're the one that you?
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
This is you? Like can you sign? Can you sign it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Man? It was absolutely nuts nuts, And then you know,
my my son is over there, lives over there. He's
like that you you are you are on uh you
are trending on Twitter, Tokyo Twitter, right.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
On Tokyo Twitter.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
You know, I'm not the Eric Diggers name right in football.
As soon as they hear NFL football player that catches
the foul ball.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Then they ran with that and they went crazy with that.
So he's like, yeah, you're on the you're Tokyo Twitter
Twitter trending.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
So so you so you're famous, and so you're famous.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
And I don't need to pay for a meal ever
in Japan.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I heard that. I heard that. That's all I wanted
to know. You asked my question. Thanks riding so.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
No, So what I was going to say is, man,
I was watching you know, they do all these things
leading up to the draft and all the history and
all that kind of stuff. Man, and I just want
to get you to kind of take us back to
your time because you were in the quote quarterback.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Draft, right, the greatest draft. Right.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
You were in the quarterback draft that that people go
back to this day and say it is the biggest
and the best quarterback draft that ever was in the
NFL with Elway and Marino and he's black legend. All
those guys that were you know, there were I think
there were like eight quarterbacks that were projected to go
in the first fifteen fifteen picks, and and you had
(11:34):
such an incredible college experience and you coming out that
it was crazy that it got almost overshadowed by all
these quarterbacks that everybody were fighting over, but more in
particularly John Elway saying he didn't want to play for Baltimore.
I'm not going to Baltimore, and that through, I'm sure
(11:54):
through everything in a frenzy because now Baltimore's got to
figure out that we're gonna take him, and we're gonna wait, staid,
who do we take next?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
We're gonna trade that, We're gonna trade everything.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
But the consensus was though that you were always gonna
be the next outside of the quarterback, You're gonna be
the next player pick, not running back, but the next
player pick. What was what was going through you and
your camp's mind, man, during that whole process of draft
day and my camp.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
That's funny, but we had no camps back then. Well really, Rodney,
it was it was going between I was one and two.
I was probably one or two, but more likely I
would be the second player taking, possibly third player taken.
And uh Airway was you know, you know, probably would
be the number one player taken for sure. Uh Marino
was in the top two or three also. But Dan dropped,
(12:44):
you know what he dropped because of well he smoked marijuana.
That was that was the big thing. He see, he
got he got high. But I mean Miami, Miami got
lucky in blackleg. I mean he didn't, I mean, he
didn't plant pan out. It was out of quarterbacks in
the draft, but it was a lot of great players,
not just quarterbacks. I mean, you got to think it
was Derek that draft. Roger Craig, I think mos but
it's a lot of I think we got more Hall
(13:04):
of Famers than any any other players in the draft,
bar in the draft. Matthews. Yeah, it's it's a lot
of guys that that in that draft. But how it
was going was that, let me see, Houston had the
number two pick and the Rams had the number three pick,
and I'd heard possibly if the Rams are gonna try
(13:25):
to flop flop with Houston to get me. That was
the kind of the running thing. And you know we
were I you know, it wasn't like it is now.
You just had no idea. So I'll never forget. You know,
I've worked out for some teams, ran forties and stuff
like that, and uh, finally I won't forget. It was
the night before the draft, you know, and then like
I said, it wasn't like it is now.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
It's not.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
You know, you didn't go down, you know, to the
to New York or whatever, you know, where you're suit
and all that kind of stuff. You know, the team
draft that they called you and if you can get
to the city, you know, then you go to the city.
So the Rams called me the night before. Jack Boston
called me. He said, Eric Dickerson. I said, yeah, this
is Eric. He says, I just want to let you
(14:04):
know that we're gonna draft you in the morning. We
met us trade with the Houston Orders, so we're gonna
draft you in the morning.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So we have a ticket for you out.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I think I think my flight leopard like eight in
the morning coming to going coming to LA from Dallas, Texas.
And I'll never forget it, so, you know, because you know,
they say one thing, but they might do something else.
So sure enough I'm in the car with my best friend.
We still best friend today. Charles Draydon.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
He take me to the airport. And so you're on
the way to the airport. I'm a way to that port.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I'm in the car, on the way to the airport,
in the car, and so because I'm I'm flying in,
but I'm turning around coming right back because I didn't
want to stay in LA. I mean, you know what
I want to come back for so I can have it,
so I could party a little bit, go out. So
so sure enough I'm on the way to the airport
and we hear that the Colts had drafted John Elway
(14:53):
took John Airway to the number one pick. And then
I sure it was gonna do it, John. I was
gonna play blah blah blah. And then they said, well,
Rams on the clock. I mean it was quick, and
they said, wow, the Los Angeles Rama took a very
quick pick. They take running back Eric Dickerson out of
Southern Methodist University, and I never forget my boy said congratulations.
I'm like wow, I mean it was a trip. I
(15:13):
mean really, I get to the airport, people congratulated. Now, man, congratulations, man,
I wish you had been a cowbober Man. Congratulations, I
said thanks.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So when I got to LA, people at the airport
already oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Knew y you know, because the draft was you know,
it was it was I don't know where it was at,
but you know, I guess New York, I guess.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
But it was definitely televised.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
So it was televised because it started early. Because remember
it was it was like it was like twelve rounds.
It was.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It was, yeah, twelve rounds.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
It was twel it was twelve rounds.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
So when I got to that, I flew to l A.
I won't forget.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Guy named Raysed san Jose picked me up and we're
driving to Ounch County. I'm thinking, because I've been to
LA before. Hold on, hold on, hold on. His real
name was Ray san Jose.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, Ray san Jose.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
And you know we we know we called we called
him he's a what you said, he's a he's a
you know you know what we called him.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
He's a he's a he's a ram. Say he's a ram.
He's a ram. He's he's him, he's a man. I
like call him. I was nickname called him. He's a
he's a ram.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
So anyway, so soname man, yeah, and I just I
saw I saw raised daughter and not long ago that
John Robinson's going celebrate the life thing a couple of
months a couple of months ago. But I like Ray Sanose.
So anyway, we're driving and I'm like, I don't really
know California l A, but's l A behind us. Because
(16:40):
I'm looking at you know we're going. I'm like, he said,
oh yeah, he said, we're in Orange County. I said,
what's Orange County? I had no clue. He said, well,
the Rams in Orange County. So we get out the
Orange County. Never forget when they get there. I mean,
I mean John Robinson grease me, and Georgia greased me,
and Jack Fagner, and I'll never forget John Robinson the
first thing he said, and we got you because he
(17:01):
recruited me coming out of high school, and I forgot
about that. He recruited me, come out, come out, come
out of a sea high to go to SC So,
you know, we did the press conference and I'm holding
up my picked my jersey, you know, and then asked me,
you know, I'm gonna say, can I want to say
a few words? And I picked number twenty shop, I'm
holding up number twenty five. You look up my draft day,
I'm holding up number twenty five. That's my number.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
That why twenty five? Why were you order twenty five?
I'll tell you that story too.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
They didn't now running back. I mean it was numbers
were slotted back then, right right, right, right right.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
You have to wear twenty to forty nine to be
a running back, right like one tonight one to nineteen
was a quarterback and a kicker, right. I said, I said,
what numbers do you have? He said, mister, heuld say,
you can't what nineteen? I said, what numbers you have?
He said, we got twenty five, twenty nine, thirty two,
thirty four and forty nine. And I just like I said,
(17:52):
I just take twenty five. So I took number twenty
five and I'm holding up in La times. And so
the press conference been good. You know, I spoke. I
remember tell him. I said, hey, I'm I knew the
Rams were bad. They had a bad football, they had
a bad year. And I said, I'm no savior. I'm
just here just to play football. I told him, I'm
no savity. I just want to play football and enjoy
enjoyed my being in LA And so after the press conference,
(18:15):
you know, we talked and stuff and like that, and
I flew back to I flew back to Dallas that
that evening, my boy picked up. My boy picked me up,
Charles picked me up. And so this is how he said.
So he said, hey, said, were talking, said, man, what
numbers you take?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Nineteen?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
I said, no, I took twenty five. He said twenty five.
Why you take that slow ass number. That's a slow number.
I'm like, I'm like, man, you right, I'm like you right,
that number two seems slow. He said, why don't you
take nineteen? And I told him you can't take nineteen.
And they said, what numbers they have? I told them
they had twenty five, forty nine, thirty two, twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
He said, why do you take twenty nine. I'm like, oh.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Yeah, now stack check this out right. So we go
to a club that night. We go to a club.
I cannot stop thinking about changing my number. Seriously, it's
just driving me crazy. So we at the club, you know,
people look congratulating me and buying getting buying me drinking.
That's one of the first times that I'd ever really
been drunk. I mean because I wasn't a real drinker.
I mean I got drunk. I mean I got o.
(19:15):
I'm like, whoa, wow, this ain't for me. So anyway,
so the next morning I called back to the rams
at like seven o'clock. It was nine o'clock dollar seven.
They weren't even open yet. So I called me the
voice man. I said, I don't think that's until like
nine o'clock. So I called back again and I speke
to speak to the secondary. I said, hey, can I
miss speak to mister Hewittt. She said who's calling? I said,
Eric Dickison, Oh, Eric, congratulations and she said thank you,
(19:37):
I said, She said, what can I do for you?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Justic?
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Can I speak to mister Hughwitt said? Okay, now you
know you missed. Do you know misster Don Hewett not
Don Hewitt? So I said, mister Hewittt, Hey this Eric Digison.
He said, how you doing?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Eric?
Speaker 4 (19:47):
You saying graduation? You know you old you old school guy.
I said, hey, mister Hewittt. I said, uh, I want
to talk to about see it by changing my number,
I said, I want to change my number to number
twenty nine. He said, Eric. He said, I'm telling you son.
He said, you can't do that. He said, you have
number twenty five in l a time, so that's the
number of you stuck. I didn't say nothing. To sit
there for a minute. I said, I'll tell you what.
(20:08):
Then I said, if I don't change of twenty nine,
I ain't coming.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
You did you went yard ball like that? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I said, I'm not constantz eight. Wow, I'm not coming.
He said, Okay, you'll be twenty nine. So that's how.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's how Betty did say that. Betty did say that.
It was hard. I love mister Hewett. He was and
it's son, Todd. I know. I just saw tired too.
It's good to see see everybody. But yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
That's how my draft they went.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So you know it's just different now different, all right,
all day or boss you sorry, go to a break
ride here and come back. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Eventually any year brought to you by Ford, Ford is
offering employee pricing on all forde you pay what Ford
employees paying. Get in your southern California for dealers, and
take advantage of the employee pricing while you can Ford
from America for America.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Rodney's draft day decidedly different than Eric's And we'll talk
about that next.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, right on, right on, right on, right on, right on.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
It is.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
A Thursday Draft Day in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Rodney P. Fred Rogan and the Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
All right, Eric, I appreciate you, uh sharing that story
story about draft day.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And you know, and and and and them, you know, you.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Know, talking about you know, where it was going and
all that kind of stuff. Man, did you get caught
up into any of that hype on the quarterback side
with it, with whether it be you know, with l
Way and him holding out and saying I'm gonna play
baseball with the Yankees instead of going to Baltimore, or
Dan Marino dropping in the draft and which we could
still do this. They couldn't believe he got he dropped
(22:04):
to like twenty eighth pick or whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
It was last year with some of these other guys.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Did you get caught up in any of that or
were you just ready or again, were there any teams
that you were like, man like l Wait, I ain't
going to Baltimore. I don't not want to go here.
I'm not please, don't draft me. Were there teams like
that for you?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Yeah, were some teams. I mean, you know, it really
didn't matter in some sense because you know, I never
played play I never thought i'd be playing pro football,
So it just kind of happened.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
You know. It's not like these.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Kids today, like you kind of have an idea where
you're going and all that kind of stuff. It was
kind of still speculation. You just really didn't didn't know.
I knew I didn't want to, and I was from Texas,
knew I didn't want to play for the Oilers.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I didn't want to. I want.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I didn't want to stay at home. Uh, and I
wanted to stay at home. I didn't want to stay.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I want.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
I wanted to. I want to get out of it.
Even if it was the Cowboys. You didn't want to
stay at home?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Nah, I didn't. I didn't like the Cowboys, but I
mean I didn't, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I'll tell you I wanted to play for the Rams,
you know, And I told you I even like the Rams.
I like the helmets, right, I love their uniforms. Man,
I'm telling like, I like that horn. I mean to me,
you know, back in them days, you know, especially if I
didn't think about when you're young, uniform was big.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I mean, that was big.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
The uniform. Think the uniform was sweet, Like I look
at my I got my SFU helmet up here right
now and my dad. Our uniform was sweet, I mean,
and the RAMS uniform was just so good looking. Man,
I'm like, I mean, I thought, I look good in
this uniform. Really, I can't, I can't lie. I mean
the oriason for played good, look good, you played good?
(23:33):
That was that was my motto. But yeah, no, I
didn't get caught up in that kind of stuff. I
was just worried about, you know, playing and you know,
trying to you know, and I was thinking because back then, right,
I mean, really, I'm thinking, I just want to try
to make the team, not not knowing that you were
number one draft pick, so you're gonna make the team
because I remember saying that the cancer and I just
want to make the team.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Like, man, you gonna make the team the first pick.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
You ain't gonna gonna gay, I gonna cut you.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
All right, Let's let's talk about what you want. Because
it was very different than what Eric went through. Your Yeah,
extremely different different.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
As Eric mentioned, you know, there were twelve rounds back then,
and you know, there was a it was a first
day and then there was a second day, and usually
the first day where you know, it was the first
you know, first six rounds went the first day and
sometimes I think it went six and a half depending
on how it was going. Uh, you got through the
(24:26):
first six and a half rounds the first day, and
then they resumed it and it and it started on
a Sunday, So it was Sunday money right, Monday, right, yeah,
it was Sunday Monday. So it wasn't these this you
know primetime Thursday night deal like they're doing now. Uh,
So Sunday morning and and then uh, you know throughout
the day, so you're sitting on pent and needles and
(24:49):
if you didn't get drafted, you go to to Monday morning.
So you know, for me, and it was like Eric said,
it's different back then. You know, you did workouts and
you had your own workout for teams, and but it
was like really collectively you had a thing going on.
And you know, he had a workout day at USC
which I had, and there were fifteen to eighteen NFL
(25:13):
teams came out and they sent their you know, head
coach coordinator, scouts and all that stuff, and and then.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
So you know, you worked out for them.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
You know, aside from from doing what you did at
the combine and leading up to the draft, there there
wasn't a whole lot of meetings, right, There wasn't a
whole lot of come on in to this to the team,
and we're gonna do the thing, and you know, sit down,
come for come for two days, and then we're gonna
wind and dine you and and see what your knowledge
(25:42):
is or we'll see if you like the city and
all that.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
There was none of that.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
You know, nowadays they bring guys in that they don't
even think about they're not even thinking about drafting, but
they'll bring them in for two days just to get
their personality and figure out if they liked the kid
or not.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
But that didn't happen back then.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
It was really phone calls, Hey, what do you think
about this? Or you know, just tell me, you know
some of them are crazy. Give me three of your
top your top plays or your favorite plays that you
like and why you like him. And then that would
be the extent of a phone call that you would
have with the head coach or the offensive coordinator. So
(26:24):
it wasn't like there was a lot, a whole lot
of indication of oh they really like me or they
don't like me, and most of them say, oh yeah,
we like you, would like you, would like you. So
I had no idea on draft day of who was
going to draft me. I got calls from you know,
different teams leading up to draft day, but I had
no idea. And in that draft, you know, everybody knew
(26:45):
Troy Aikman was going to be the number one pick.
I think he in fact, I think he signed. I
think I think he signed the night of the draft.
You know, you can't do that with the guys, you
can't sign people before. But I think everybody knew he
was going to number one pick in Dallas, had already
had a deal worked out with him before you know,
draft even happened, So he was always going to be
(27:07):
the number one pick. There was a debate on who
was gonna be second, third, or fourth and in that draft,
which was pretty cool. I go back and look at
that draft class and in that draft class was Barry
Sanders out of Oklahoma State.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
He came out early. He was a junior, so he
came out early.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
UH Dion Sanders out of Florida State, Roderick Thomas, who
was a good defensive outside linebacker.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, and and then Derek Thomas came out of Alabama.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Roderick was from Nebraska, Derek was from Alabama, So it
was kind.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Of a loaded uh.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Donnel Woolford was his second best corner outside of Dion
uh coming out of Clemson.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
So Hartley Dykes was a big time receiver.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So there were a number of names coming out in
that uh, in that draft, and and for me when
they started listing different quarterbacks, because you know, you you know,
for me at least, I you know, you pay attention.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Uh, Okay, who could possibly go before me?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Who who's the other guys out there that that may
pose a threat if a team wants a quarterback, are
they going to take this guy or they gonna.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Take him over me? Whoever?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
So I knew all the names of the other quarterbacks
that were in that draft that year, and I was
so confident, I guess and probably naive to that point
that thinking that, Okay, if Troy is going number one,
if Troy Aikman is going to be the number one pick,
then I can't beat too far behind. Because we had
(28:40):
comparable stats we played against each other, we played in
the same conference, same competition. Uh we had we had
beaten him twice in the last two years in games
that were meaningful that determined who was going to go
to the to the Rose Bowl, and our team beat
them back to back years. So I was like, Okay,
(29:02):
you canna love Troy, but I'm right there on it
on his heels in terms of the next quarterback taken.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
And so I'm feeling that way.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
And then and then you start to listen to some
of the other commentaries. Uh, you know, again not like
it is today, but they're different. Male Kuiper was back
then and they were going through the boards of quarterbacks
and my name kept throwing out there getting thrown out
there as that you know, after after eight men. Uh
maybe it's Arizona who had an early pick or Green
(29:29):
Bay who had an early pick that would draft me.
And uh so I was, you know, I was kind
of looking forward to to draft day and then you
wake up and again Dallas wasted no time in taking Troy.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
I think it went one second off the clock.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
They said, okay, Dallas, Cowboys take and so it was
off to the races after that.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
And then green Bay took Tony Manderidge off.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah. Remember Tony Mandridge still Madrid who got you know,
infamously Stone has the sterteroid guy.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Uh, Tony Mandridge out of Michigan State and they took him.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Green Bay took him.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And then the third pick in the draft, the Detroit
Lions take Barry Sanders.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I was like, okay, okay, Barry. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Everybody thought Barry's gonna be you know, him and Aikman
could be closed. But they knew Aikman was going, but
they nobody saw Tony Mandridge being the second pick in
the draft, and so they picked him, and they picked
Berry Detroit Big Berry. And then Domino start following on
defensive side, with Derrick Thomas going to Kansas City and
(30:41):
Broderick Thomas, you know, I think he went to Tampa
Bay or something like that. And so the first round
keeps going and there are no other quarterbacks being taken,
and I'm thinking, I gotta be somewhere around coming up soon.
I gotta, you know, I gotta something's got to happen
on my phone or somebody's gonna give me an alert
(31:02):
that they may take me.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
It didn't happen.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
The second round comes around, and the Green Bay Packers
on the clock again and they take uh kid named
Anthony Dilwig. And see how I know these names, because yeah,
I know everybody. Anthony Dilwick. I got a duke, you know,
he was a quarterback, got a duke that I had
(31:27):
barely heard of. And the Green Bay Packers take him
with the first pick of the second round, and I'm like, oh, wow, okay, okay,
I didn't want to play in Green Bay anyway.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
It's too cold. You got that out? Want to play
in green Bay? The hell with green Bay. I want
to play with him anyway.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
And then it just kept going and kept going into
the second round. There's two other quarterbacks taken, and then
the third and the third round hits and I was like,
I got to go in the third.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Round at least.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
And two other quarterbacks get taken in the second or
the third and fourth round, and then it goes and
goes and goes, and by the fifth round, I'm like,
I gotta go somewhere. Something's happening sometime, and it didn't happen,
and four more quarterbacks get taken in the fifth round,
(32:22):
you know, and I know that in the draft at
that time, twelve rounds, the first sixth rounds are done
the first day, and the last six rounds are done
the next day. So they're winding down on that first
day and it gets to be the you know, the
middle of the sixth round on the first day, and
my name is not called, and they close it out
(32:46):
and say, we will resume the draft tomorrow morning. Monday
is Monday. Yeah, we're going to resume it Monday morning
at eight am. And I had not been drafted. Wow,
And it was the longest, longest night of my life.
And I didn't care at that point, you know, a
d He was like, I just want to know someone
(33:09):
give me, tell me, tell me where I'm going. I'll
go compete with anybody. Just just give me a team
to go play for. And that didn't happen, and I,
you know, didn't sleep that night. And what made it
worse was my mom was with me, and my mom
was hanging out.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We were all together kind of getting ready. I didn't
do you know, I didn't do the big party or
anything like that.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Uh, but I had my mom and my cousin and
a couple other people that were hanging with me, and uh,
that didn't happen, and it was like it was the
most devastating awkward time. I think that I can remember
having the people in the room, especially my mom.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
My mom was crying the whole time, the whole night,
she was crying.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
She cannot believe that nobody wanted to take me and
h and so that.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Was start on me.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I can you know, I you know, as a kid,
you know you can handle anything, but your mama crying
that was that was hard to take. And uh So
the next day starts and hadn't slept all night long,
and the first call I got because Detroit had the
second pick of the sixth round and they called me.
(34:26):
Wayne Fons called me and said we're gonna take you.
And they ended up taking me. Uh I remember it
was like eight o seven, eight o seven on Pacific
time that my phone rang. And then uh he said, yeah,
we we just take We just took you, you know,
and be a de trend line.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Get ready to get on the plane, come out here
out here.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
And so I got on the plane and went to Detroit, man,
and I was like, you know, it was bittersweet because
that was like finally, thank you, I'm I'm done with
that process. I'm drafting, I go compete with anybody. I
don't care, you know, just give me on the team.
I go compete.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And uh, the hardest part was not knowing if anybody
was gonna take it.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
And thank god, Detroit they That's why I still got
love for Detroit to this day because they they they're
the ones that did take the chance on me and
allow me to go play.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
So I love.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Them, you know, to this day, because I didn't know
if they didn't take me, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
If anybody else would them.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I had no idea, but they did, and uh, I
was I was happy. But I definitely went in, you know,
at that point with a chip on my shoulder, going, Okay,
I gotta I gotta prove.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I got to prove some folks wrong, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
So it was it was a very very difficult day
for me, but in the long run, it turned out
to be a blessing because it gave me a lot
of motivation to uh, to prove that that a lot
of teams made a mistake. And you know, looking up,
there were nine quarters backs taken before me, nine taken
(36:03):
before me, and that.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
What was the guy's name?
Speaker 1 (36:05):
You said, hold on, hold on, hold on, Let's finish
this on the other side. Let's keep going. Okay, all right,
we'll continue with Eric and Rodney. All right, Fred Rogan,
Rodney Pe, Eric Dickerson, Uh Rodney and Eric shared their
draft day stories.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yes to both of you.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I mean, it's a moment you'll never forget. And really
it's a moment that changed both of your lives.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Fair, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, because it's a it's the moment
that you you know, you grow up, you know Fred
thinking about and there's a moment that comes about.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I don't know what age is.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's different for everybody, but you start playing football and
whether it be Pop Warner or middle school or high school,
and then you start, you know, you play in college
and go late.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I got a shot. I got a shot to play
in the prose. Man.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Let me let's see what Let's see what happened. Man,
I got a shot to play the pros. Let's go
for this thing and you do that. And for me,
it was went from I got a definite shot to
play the prose and I can't wait to get there too.
(37:18):
They don't think I'm good enough to playing the pros. Yeah,
you know, they don't. They don't think I'm they don't
think I'm I can handle playing in the pros because
I played in college against the best competition and held
my own and all of a sudden, now they're thinking
that I'm not good enough to play against the competition
(37:39):
at at the next level. So that put it that
put a tremendous chip on my shoulder. And at that time,
I was playing baseball too at college. I was playing
you know, baseball USC and and at that time baseball
uh in college, especially in the pack and it was
Pack ten at that time. The competition was was it
(38:00):
intents and was real to the point where the many
equated it to you know, playing in the minor leagues
and playing in Double A or Triple A in the
minor leagues, because when you play teams like Stanford and
Arizona State and Arizona and and Cal and U C.
L A and all those teams on a regular basis,
it is like playing in the minor leagues because the
(38:23):
quality of talent is there. You know, you rattle I
can rattle off all the names that I played against
in college, which are you know, Barry Bonds and and uh,
Michael you know, Mike Devereux and uh at Arizona State
and ode B McDowell. If people don't know who he is,
he would have been the best college players ever. Uh
(38:44):
they played at Arizona State, you know, uh, you know, uh,
you know, Cactus Jack McDowell was a pitcher at Stanford,
you know, you know, Uh, God, I can rattle off
the pictures at Stanford too, that were that were there.
Alex Sander Chess, Eric Carroll's played at UCLA. There were
(39:04):
a number I played with Randy Johnson, who was our
pitcher in our age when I was a freshman at USC.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
All these guys.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Brett Boone was my second baseman when I played third
base at USC and that can go on and on
and on of guys that went on to play in
the league that played in the Pack you know, Pack
ten at that time.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
So the competition was great.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
So when I didn't get drafted high and I got
drafted in the sixth round, like, you know, what, the
hell with this, I'm gonna go play baseball. I'm gonna
try to go play baseball forget this. And so I
got really intense about working out for the Oakland A's
who had drafted me, and I was like, let's go,
let's go try for this thing. But in the back
(39:46):
of my mind, I was thinking, man, they really don't think.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
I can play quarterback in the league, and.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
I'd be doing myself a disservice if I don't go
try it, or if I don't go, really just give
it everything. I got to go play quarterback and prove
these people wrong because.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
They don't think I can do it.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
And that one out over me just going and I
want to say as a cop out, but me just saying,
for good football, I'm gonna go play baseball because you
drafted me.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Low.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I was like, no, no, I'm gonna play football because
I think I can play, and I'm gonna show you
that I can't play, which is why football went on
to play. And then look up and see that all
of those cats, other than Troy Aiightman, you know, all
of them only played tops three years in the league.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Troy and all.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
The quarterbacks drafted before me at most played three years
in the league, and Troy and I were the only
ones that played more than four years in the league.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
What do you never know? What? What?
Speaker 4 (40:55):
What did you get drafted in?
Speaker 2 (40:56):
What did you get.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Drafted ninety and eighteen eighteen, not that Allen nineteen eighty,
nineteen eighty nine, eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah, you know, did you ever asked Rodney? You know,
years later and I'm just curious why you were selected
when you were Did you ever ask anybody that?
Speaker 3 (41:19):
I didn't ask Red, but everybody, most people knew, a
lot of people knew, and it was very clear that
at that time there was.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Not a whole lot of black quarterbacks. That is exactly
what I Yeah, it was not. There was not been
a black quarterbacks at that time. When I was drafted.
It was Warn Moon him Wonder Moon, and that was it.
That was it. That was it. That was it. That
was it.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Yeah, there was there was no other. Yeah, there were
no other black quarterbacks at that time. And there was
still that stigma as black quarterbacks really couldn't run a
team or win a championship. And you know, for whatever
reason they threw it out out there, it was like
they're not leaders or we can't handle the leadership role
and the load is too hell off.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
All that that wasn't about. It was all about right,
and we.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
Came out of the thing that they said that the
black the black player was not smart enough. That's that's
why they weren't intelligent enough. I mean, and that's why
asked last what the year you came in? Because yeah,
I mean it was a lot. Like I asked Warren
this a year ago and I never asked him. I said,
I said, man, why did you go to the USFL?
I mean, uh, football? Canadian footballer? He said, Eric, he said,
(42:38):
they didn't want me to play quarterback. He said, don't
want to put me the receiver or or our defensive back.
He said, I didn't want to play that because we
had a chance. We had a chance to get warn
when we got Dee the Brock, you know, and and
we took Dee the Brock instead.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Of about that was smart about that for you? Eric?
You're looking up going we got a chance to get
warn Moon and.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
If I had the brock, if I if I had
a one moon and you kidding me, man, you know
what that been.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
I just want to I want to share it with
you guys.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
I'm looking at I'm looking at when when I would
draft class came out, and uh, you know it was
twenty to twenty eight teams back then, and this is
what this was. The comments after every player. I ain't
gonna go to all of them. If Baltimore coach John
l Way may go to the Yankees, that's what it says.
Eric Dickerson, top runner, UH Kurt Warner with the third pick,
(43:26):
best ever at Penn State. It's just all these comes up.
That's that's the comments. Some guys like Bruce Matthews, fine
past blocker. I mean, it was just you know this,
this is how they looked at us. I mean, Gabriel
gabrievera from he played at UH, when he played Texas
Tech Red Raiders, they said, just put three hundred pounders.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
That's all they put. At the end of it. It's
like it was.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
It was way way different. But yeah, that's that's that's
the reason. I just want to know.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
It was nobody wanted to talk about it. Nobody wanted
to talk about it, Fred just being straight up. Nobody
wanted to talk about it. But at that time, it
was still and this is nineteen eighty nine, there was
still UH that stigma, that that prejudice that a black
(44:15):
quarterback could not lead a team to a championship.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
And this was reminded. Remember this is just.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Two years two years after Doug Williams took me the
Washington that time, Redskins to the to the Super Bowl
championship and set records in that championship game.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
And do you know they were not happy about that
because they had I mean and John that Way came
in out of my same thing. I like John, but
they had it all set for John to go to
Disneyland and everything, and they didn't, you know, and they
didn't even do it with with who wanted.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
They didn't do the pre commercial with Doug.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Yeah, Doug, they didn't do the predn't even I remember that.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
Doug doesn't talk about that whole lot. But yeah, you're
absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
They did, you know, they we notice, we know, you know,
these things pre you know, they pre pre tape them
just in case one side wins or the other side wins.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
And they did a whole campaign with John Elway. Hey,
what are you gonna do after you win? You just
super Bowl?
Speaker 3 (45:22):
I'm going to Disneyland, I'm going to Didney World, I'm
going to this And they did all of that for John.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
O'Way and that's nothing for nothing. Doug Williams, Yeah, anything,
Doug Way, It's good.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
I'm good.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
I'm glad to see the league has changed in some
ways for that. I mean, because now you have to
have a not even a black quarterback. You got to
have a guy that can run and throw. You got
to have that, guys. I mean, if you ain't got
that guy, I mean, which was condemned back in the day.
Though oh yeah, yo, really he runs too much. He runs,
he runs too much. So but yeah, I mean, I
(45:56):
don't want to beat there. And we can keep going
on the drift all that. So let's talk about it.
Let's let's let's talk about some of the drafts we're
gonna talk about. Let's talk about some guys get drafted.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
We're talking about what Eric, Eric, don't you you want
to continue? I thought you had to know.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
I got a way to go. I got I got,
I got nowhere to go.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
So Eric, when you got picked, when you got picked
for the Rams, you said, you know, cool way cool.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Wait wait, Eric, you're gonna stay, said Eric, You're not
going nowhere?
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Eric stayed, we got here, or break.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Well, you're more than welcome to the stairs long as you all.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
He can't go nowhere now he's all locked in. Well,
I gotta talk about this draft. I want to talk
about the draft. What I got to think at five o'clock. Anyway,
we'll do it on the other side, Okay.
Roggin And Rodney News
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