FanHouse Eric Dickerson

Young players announcing impossible goals are as much a part of preseason as two-a-days, roster cuts and injuries. Eleven years ago, then-second-year running back Corey Dillon announced that he would rush for 2,500 yards during the 1998 season. He came up 1,370 yards short.

In 2007, Frank Gore set his sights on Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards. He ended up with 1,102 yards, barely halfway there.

Atlanta Falcons running back Michael Turner was reportedly involved in a domestic dispute. Gwinnett County Police responded to a call Monday evening that involved Turner and the mother of his infant child, though no arrests were made.

Gwinnett County Police Corp. David Schiralli said police responded to a call between 7 and 8 p.m. EST Monday, but he would not identify the woman or the site of the incident.

Police made no arrests and do not plan to file charges.

"There is not enough probable cause for us to proceed any further," Schiralli said.

No charges is good news for Atlanta. Turner was the NFL's second-leading rusher this year with 1,699 yards and 16 touchdowns. His Pro-Bowl effort help earn the Falcons an improbable wildcard berth. Only Eric Dickerson and Ricky Williams rushed for more TDs in their first season with a new team.

As the Detroit Lions gird up their loins to hit the field of battle on another turkey day, they face quite a daunting task. No team in the history of the NFL has ever lost 16 games in the regular season. That's probably because they only play 16. You have to be a really, horrifically brutal football team to finish 0-16, which is why no one has accomplished that feat before.

A peek at the Lions schedule from here on out shows their task. Any win for an 0-11 team would be an upset, but this is a stout group left on the docket for Detroit. They play the Titans (10-1), Vikings (6-5), and Saints (6-5) at home, while traveling to face the Colts (7-4) and the Packers (5-6). The most winnable game would seem to be Green Bay, but beating the Packers in Lambeau on December 28th isn't an easy task for a team used to the indoors.

Simply put, I think the Lions are going 0-16. I actually have for quite some time.

Let's examine their profile against some of the worst teams in NFL history (Super Bowl era) to see where they might rank.

Thumbs up on the hair, Al Michaels, and I loved you as Larry on Three's Company. Also good to see O.J. Simpson in his element, talking incoherently about football, no doubt offering inspiration to future utterly useless sideline reporters like Eric Dickerson and Lisa Guerrero.

At halftime of Super Bowl XIX, and with the 49ers leading the Dolphins 28-16, the Juiced offered this nugget: "The 49ers are notorious for becoming somewhere LETH-AR-GIC after they've built up an early lead." Predictably, San Francisco would outscore Miami 10-0 over the final 30 minutes.

Other random notes, via the Wikipedias:

• This game was the first time television commercials ran for a million dollars a minute;
• Ronald Reagan did the pregame coin toss ... from the White House via satellite;
• The halftime show: "World of Children's Dreams" with the USAF Tops In Blue.
  

I'm guessing there were no wardrobe malfunctions.

Some good news to distract Chargers' fans from the fact that Norvell Turner is still the head coach: LaDainian Tomlinson is just 91 yards shy of 10,000 career rushing yards.

"I think 10,000 yards is usually a benchmark for most running backs in their career. If you have a successful career, they say you rushed for 10,000 yards. So obviously, that would be a big accomplishment."

In Tomlinson's case, it could be the precursor for even bigger feats. If he surpasses 10,000 this Sunday, it will come in his 105th career game, making him the fourth fastest running back to reach that mark. The three quickest are Eric Dickerson (91 games), Jim Brown (98) and Barry Sanders (103).

Let's see, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame, and ... Hall of Fame. And what about the guy who holds the all-time career rushing record, Emmitt Smith? He reached 10 grand in carries in 106 games. Smith finished with 18,355 yards in his 15-year career. This is LdT's seventh season, and he'll need to maintain his productivity over the next few years if he's even going to have a shot at 18,355.

At one time, many people thought Barry Sanders would be the guy to break Walter Payton's record, but unlike most professional athletes, Sanders walked away from the sport while he still could, you know, walk.

Former Los Angeles Rams (and Colts and Raiders and Falcons) running back Eric Dickerson owns the all-time single-season NFL rushing record, with 2,105 yards in 1984. And while Dickerson says he believes Vikings rookie Adrian Peterson has the ability to break that record, he also says he doesn't want it to happen.

"He has a good shot at doing it. I hope he doesn't, to be honest,'' Dickerson, 47, said in a telephone interview. "You want those records as long as you can. That's part of having the record, your name gets brought up, and it's great for him and it's great for me.''

I'm betting a lot more retired athletes feel that way than will admit it. I appreciate Dickerson being honest enough to come right out and say it, and not do the politically correct thing and say he's rooting for Peterson. Right now Peterson is at 1,036 yards, putting him on pace to finish with 2,076, or 30 yards short of breaking the record.

Hat tip: Pro Football Talk.

Coming off a 1,695-yard season and a new four-year deal, 49ers running back Frank has even bigger plans going forward:

"I always want to do better than what I did last year. I know [surpassing Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing mark of 2,105 yards is a] big number. I'm going to try to get it. I will work hard this offseason. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't."

Props to Gore on taking the initiative. It's a big undertaking, and he seems to understand the difficulty involved, but unlike, say, Kobe Bryant trying to break Wilt Chamberlain's single-game scoring mark, every extra yard Gore earns, all the better for the 49ers.

There is one issue, though: most running backs coming off seasons where they have more than 350 rushing attempts struggle the following year. Former Ravens Jamal Lewis, the last player to break the 2,000-yard rushing mark, limped through the 2004 season with injuries. Last year, Shaun Alexander missed chunks of the season because of a broken foot; he was one of the league's best rushers in 2005.

Gore has youth on his side -- he's 23 -- so that could mitigate some of the concerns. Plus, Dickerson -- you know, the guy who holds the record -- never suffered the ill effects of overuse. In recent history, he's the only guy to avoid such a fate, but if nothing else, he proves it's not impossible. Just to be safe, for the 2007 season I'd suggest Gore sport goggles and a Jheri curl.