Tag: Eric Dickerson

Eric Dickerson made headlines last week when he said he didn’t want Saquon Barkley to break his single-season rushing record. Who could blame him?

It’s a record that’s stood since he set it in 1984, rushing for 2,105 yards one year after he set the rookie rushing mark – another record that’s stood to this day.

“I don’t think he’ll break it,” Dickerson told the LA Times. “But if he breaks it, he breaks it. Do I want him to break it? Absolutely not. I don’t pull no punches on that.”

Naturally, there were some people who took issue with Dickerson’s comments. Among them was LeSean McCoy, who claimed Dickerson was “hating” and called him “grandpa” for rooting against Barkley.

Damn if this ain’t some hating old head sh….. I can’t imagine at 60 hating on young players grandpa we you hating so hard https://t.co/jAX9Ve59RP

— LeSean Shady Mccoy (@CutonDime25) December 27, 2024

“Records are meant to be broken,” McCoy said on FOX Sports. “You paved the way for guys like Saquon to break the record. It’s going to be a young kid; I don’t know, 30 from now, 40 years from now, it’s going to break Saquon’s record. As running backs we got to stick together because they always trying to break us down. Eric Dickerson, you should do better, homie. Stop the hating and more applauding.”

This week, Dickerson doubled down on his stance regarding Barkley’s pursuit of the record.

“Absolutely not!” Dickerson told USA TODAY Sports when asked if he’s changed his mind. “That doesn’t even make sense. Like I told the guy earlier, I don’t want nobody to break my record. These people who say, ‘records are meant to be broken,’ you ain’t got no record. You don’t have one. When you get those records, you want to hang on to them.”

Nothing Dickerson has said about Barkley and the rushing record is wrong. Even if “records are meant to be broken,” that doesn’t mean the person holding the record should be rooting for someone else to break it.

McCoy is in no position to criticize Dickerson, nor is anyone else. He has every right to want his record to stand, which it will for at least one more year because Barkley will get Week 18 off with the Eagles locked into the No. 2 seed.

But of course, Dickerson felt the need to clarify his comments – primarily because of McCoy’s outcry for him to “do better.”

He released a video on social media Thursday explaining his reasoning, saying he’s a “Saquon Barkley fan.”

“McCoy, brother. Know your football,” he said. “I love running backs. I’m a running back. … I would never hate on another running back. That’s not me. So like I said, know your history about running backs.”

Clearing up the misrepresentation of my views on Saquon and the rushing title… pic.twitter.com/CvJPIgUcQk

— Eric Dickerson (@EricDickerson) January 2, 2025

If anyone’s wrong in this situation, it’s McCoy. Who is he to say Dickerson should want Barkley to break his record?

Maybe McCoy said what he did for the attention. Maybe he actually believes Dickerson should root for Barkley. Either way, his outrage over the Hall of Famer’s comments is unfounded.

Dickerson should want his record to stand for another 40 years. And there’s a chance it will. No one should tell a legend he should want history to be stripped from him for the benefit of another player.

Eric Dickerson can exhale. His single-season rushing record is safe for another year.

Saquon Barkley made a strong run at Dickerson’s all-time record of 2,105 rushing yards, which he set 40 years ago in 1984, but he’s going to come up 100 yards short of the historic mark.

Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni told reporters on Wednesday that Barkley will not play in the season finale this weekend.

The Eagles have clinched the No. 2 seed in the NFC and have nothing to play for, so Barkley will get the week off and finish the season with 2,005 yards – just the ninth player to ever eclipse 2,000 yards in a single season.

Eagles HC Nick Sirianni told reporters, “We’re gonna rest some guys” Sunday vs. the Giants.

There will be no single-season rushing record for Saquon Barkley.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 1, 2025

Dickerson set the record in a 16-game season after O.J. Simpson did it in just 14 games. Barkley played and started all 16 games this season but won’t play in the finale against his former team, the New York Giants.

Dickerson said very candidly last week that he wasn’t rooting for Barkley to break the record and he didn’t think the Eagles running back would. Barkley would’ve had a great chance if not for the Eagles clinching the No. 2 seed, sitting just 101 yards away from passing Dickerson.

Even in a 17-game season, 2,105 yards is going to be hard for any running back to beat. Adrian Peterson has come the closest, rushing for 2,097 yards in 2012.

Plenty of running backs have tried to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record but all of them have come up short. Saquon Barkley is trying to change that. He’s having one of the best seasons ever at the position, racking up 1,838 rushing yards with 15 total touchdowns through 15 games.

With two weeks remaining, Barkley needs 268 rushing yards in order to break Dickerson’s mark of 2,105 yards, which was set in 1984. Barkley is averaging 122.5 yards per game so it’s not unreasonable for him to average 134 yards per game in the final two weeks.

Dickerson spoke to Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times about the possibility of Barkley breaking his record 40 years later and he was brutally honest about it. He’s not rooting for Barkley to get it done, nor does he think the Eagles running back will eclipse his record.

“I don’t think he’ll break it,” Dickerson said. “But if he breaks it, he breaks it. Do I want him to break it? Absolutely not. I don’t pull no punches on that. But I’m not whining about it. He had 17 games to do it? Hey, football is football. That’s the way I look at it. If he’s fortunate to get over 2,000 yards and get the record, it’s a great record to have.”

There have been eight running backs who eclipsed 2,000 yards rushing in a single season, with Derrick Henry (2,027) being the latest to do so in 2020. Only four have done it since 2000, so Barkley is trying to become the fifth this century – and the first in a 17-game season.

Dickerson set his record in 16 games and he broke O.J. Simpson’s record of 2,003 yards, which was accomplished in only 14 games.

“O.J. Simpson was my favorite player. He went over 2,000 yards in 14 games,” Dickerson said. “It took me 15 games to get to 2,000. I had one extra game to play. Getting to 2,000 is an accomplishment in itself. I got close to that three other times.”

Barkley’s final two games are against the Cowboys and Giants, so he’ll try to break the record against two division rivals – including the team he played six years for. Dickerson said he doesn’t “sit down and watch games” except for the Rams, but he feels like he has to watch Barkley’s pursuit of the record because of how often he gets texts about it.

“I don’t sit down and watch games, except the Rams, and I work for the team,” he said. “But I’ll have no choice but to keep up with it because I get so many text messages. People blowing up my phone like, ‘Man, it’s not fair. He gets 17 games,’ or, ‘We’re going to put a hex on him.’”

Dickerson’s record has stood for 40 years but there’s real chance it falls in the next two weeks.