Eric Dickerson Changes His Representation and May Demand Changes in His Contract

Eric Dickerson has fired his agent and there will be a pause while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

That could signal the start of an attempt by the Ram running back’s new representatives from the Ken Norton Co. to renegotiate his contract before next season. It could be a long, hot summer.

Jack Mills, the Boulder, Colo., lawyer who got a $2.2 million, 4-year agreement for Eric Dickerson when the Rams drafted him in 1983, confirmed Sunday that his client had severed their relationship.

Dickerson could not be reached Sunday, but apparently he was unhappy that Mills had been unable to extract more money from the Rams after Dickerson broke O.J. Simpson’s National Football League single-season rushing record with 2,105 yards last year.

Mills, in Los Angeles for the annual meeting of NFL player agents, met with Dickerson, former heavyweight champion Ken Norton and two of Norton’s associates Thursday night.

“I was informed that Eric had decided to have other representation,” Mills said by phone from Boulder Sunday. “I told him I had not anticipated this.”

The Rams have a strict policy about renegotiating contracts which have more than one year to run. They don’t--not even for the man generally acknowledged to be the best runner in football today.

Dickerson’s contract, with two years remaining, calls for him to be paid $350,000 next season, including a $150,000 reporting bonus up front. For his status, that’s well below the current rate, which escalated sharply when the United States Football League was organized the same year he joined the Rams.

No Ram official would comment immediately.