RSS
Home
Eric Dickerson on the NFL: "LA don't deserve a team"
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Hall-of-Famer Eric Dickerson, the former Los Angeles Ram and Raider running back, shared some regrettable (and gramatically incorrect) words about the vague possibility of pro football returning to LA.
From ProFootballTalk.com:
A member of the TMZ.com patrol of citizen videographers caught up with Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson, asking him when Los Angeles will get another NFL team.
"First of all, L.A. don't deserve a team,” Dickerson said. “They ain’t gonna support it.”
Dickerson then made an analogy.
“L.A. is like a bad kid,” Dickerson said. “[H]is ball is laying over there, he don’t wanna play with the ball. But when . . . somebody else picks the ball up, then he wants the ball.”
You can bet that an apology will almost certainly follow Dickerson's analogy. At least that's usually how these things work. He just "misspoke," as they say.
I've written before about the ups and downs of the NFL in LA rumor mill. Frankly, there's nothing worth discussing until something substantial (read: ginormous) happens. But do fans want to listen to a big name -- and former LA world-class athlete -- say they are undeserving and incapable of supporting a team?
Sorry, but there are current so-called NFL cities that don't deserve a team and have shown a lack of support since day 1. Those cities will remain nameless, but it doesn't take advanced NFL insight to figure out which fanbases pull less than their weight.
Dickerson drove home his point with this gem about the Lakers:
“When the Lakers are winning, it’s crowded. But when the Lakers are losing, you could roll a stick of dynamite in there and blow up nothing but the floor.”
So when the Lakers are winning, fan interest peaks. But when the Lakers are losing, the interest tends to dissolve. Got it.
Here's my question: Couldn't the exact same thing be said about any fanbase in the country?
I mean, we're not talking about European soccer hooligans who view their team and life as one in the same. Yes, when a team is in the cellar or not up to par with expectations, fan interest regresses. The regression varies depending on what fanbase we're talking about, but it's true across the board. I doubt LA is the worst. In fact, I know it's not.
If a pro football team ever sets foot in LA in, what's looking like, a very distant future, don't be surprised if Eric Dickerson isn't asked to do the opening coin toss. He doesn't deserve it.
Related Articles:
Comments
