"From one Rams running back to another, Eric Dickerson has a message for Steven Jackson: You owe me a jersey.

"I've always liked Steven," Dickerson said in a recent phone interview. "The first time I met him he was coming into the league. He just happened to get drafted by the Rams. I didn't know he was going to get drafted by my old team."

They got to talking, and as Dickerson tells the story, Jackson asked him about the NFL rookie rushing record he set in 1983 with the Los Angeles Rams:

Jackson: "What was your rookie record?"

Dickerson: "You can't get that rookie record — 1,808 yards and 20 touchdowns."

Jackson: "I want to get that."

Dickerson: "I tell you what, if you get it, I'll give you my rookie jersey. If not, you give me your rookie jersey."

Jackson: "OK."

Jackson, who shared time with Marshall Faulk as a rookie in 2004, didn't come close. He finished with 673 yards rushing that season.

"I'm still waiting on my jersey now, as a matter of fact," Dickerson said, laughing. "You tell him I'm still waiting on my jersey. He's got to pay off on the bet."

Jackson may not have gotten Dickerson's rookie mark, but he did break Dickerson's franchise record for career rushing yards during the Rams' game Oct. 24 at Tampa Bay. Jackson enters Sunday's game in San Francisco with 7,383 yards — and counting. Dickerson, who was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999, had 7,245 yards in four-plus seasons with the Rams.

"I'm really happy for Steven," Dickerson said. "Steven's a great player. He's been the backbone of the Rams' offense through some really lean years. He's a class guy. I think he's a guy that his teammates can look up to, the younger guys can look up to.

"He's a workhorse back. There's very few guys like a Steven Jackson. There's probably maybe three or four guys like that. A guy that you can hand the ball off to 25, 35 times if you have to and he can still carry the ball and come back and play the next week. That's a tribute to him and his work ethic as a football player."

Before breaking Dickerson's record, Jackson told reporters that Dickerson was someone he'd always admired, in part because Dickerson was a taller back like himself.

"It means something to me also when a big back does it," Dickerson said. "All of us big guys, tall guys, they always give us this stigma that we couldn't play running back. And I'm sure Steven heard it also. You shouldn't play running back, you're too tall. You should try to play tight end or something like that. I don't want to be no tight end; I want to be a running back."

At 6-3, there is no taller running back than Dickerson in the Hall of Fame. (Larry Csonka, the former Miami Dolphin and 1987 inductee, also is 6-3.)"