I might be outing myself as a 31-year-old here, but I genuinely had no idea that Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson was once traded to the Green Bay Packers until I saw a comment from “unrine-monkey” on the /r/Oldschool_NFL subreddit. I cannot believe I actually wrote that, but offseason content is offseason content.
Here’s what happened: In the 1993 offseason, the Los Angeles Raiders, another team I had no idea Dickerson played for, sent the running back to the Atlanta Falcons for a sixth-round pick. His stint with Atlanta lasted all of four games before the Falcons decided to make the trade and send Dickerson to Green Bay.
Dickerson was packaged with cornerback Bruce Pickens, who was picked third overall in the 1991 draft and was at the time a starter for the Falcons, in exchange for Green Bay’s running back, John Stephens, who had joined the team by way of the New England Patriots that offseason.
The hitch? Dickerson didn’t pass the Packers’ physical, which led to the Hall of Famer reevaluating his career and ultimately deciding to retire. Green Bay ended up nabbing Pickens, where he played all of two games before being moved on from and joining the Kansas City Chiefs to end the 1993 season.
Stephens was never a Falcon, but ended up in the same position, landing with the Chiefs to end the 1993 season. Stephens, the player Atlanta wanted to trade two players for, ended up posting 18 rushing yards in the remainder of his post-Packers career, in part because he was accused of rape in Kansas City and pleaded guilty to the crime.
By the time this trade was proposed, quarterback Brett Favre, who was traded from Atlanta to Green Bay, had already become the starting quarterback for the Packers and earned a Pro Bowl in his first year with the team. I can’t hate on general manager Ron Wolf for swinging for the fences, but in hindsight, it’s clear there would have been no winner in this trade.
Anyway, I just thought this was an interesting piece of history that I wasn’t aware of, which I don’t take accountability for since I was negative one month old at the time.