Throwback Thursday: Halloween Trade

The Pro Football Hall of Fame website reminded me of big trade made on Halloween Day 1987. It was an interesting trade for a few reasons. It involved 10 players and draft choices. It was made during the season. It was a three-way deal between the Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills, and Indianapolis Colts. It involved future Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson. It broke down like this:

Rams traded:
Eric Dickerson, RB

Rams received:
Greg Bell, RB
Owen Gill, RB
Bills #1-1988 (Gaston Green, RB, 14th overall)
Colts #1-1988 (Aaron Cox, WR, 20th overall)
Colts #2-1988 (Fred Strickland, LB, 47th overall)
Bills #1-1989 (Cleveland Gary, RB, 26th overall)
Colts #2-1989 (Frank Stams, LB, 45th overall)
Bills #2-1989 (Darryl Henley, DB, 53rd overall)

Colts traded:
Owen Gill, RB
Rights to Cornelius Bennett, LB
#1-1988
#2-1988
#2-1989

Colts received
Eric Dickerson, RB

Bills traded:
Greg Bell, RB
#1-1988
#1-1989
#2-1989

Bills received:
Rights to Cornelius Bennett

There were a lot of parts to this trade. The additional trading partner makes it a little more complicated than the disastrous Herschel Walker trade between the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings two years later. That trade involved 18 players and draft choices. One thing that strikes me about this trade of Dickerson is that a few years later the Rams passed Jerome Bettis on to the Pittsburgh Steelers. For whatever reason, the Rams were pretty generous with Hall of Fame caliber backs. The Rams did get back at the Colts about a decade later when they traded for, rather than traded away, Marshall Faulk. The Rams bonanza of draft picks didn't yield much.  Cleveland Gary had a bunch of touchdowns in 1990 and went over 1,000 yards in 1992. Fred Strickland probably had the most productive NFL career. Twelve years, but only five were with the Rams. Greg Bell had a couple of nice seasons with the Rams.

It's pretty obvious that the key pieces to this trade were Eric Dickerson and Cornelius Bennett. Dickerson was one of the best backs in league history. Setting the single season rushing record of 2,105 yards that still stands. Bennett was a major part of the Buffalo Bills teams that went to four straight Super Bowls.

Trades like this have popped up a few times in NFL history. I tend to believe that won't see too many, if any, going forward. I don't think that that we'll see this many parts to a trade, let alone get three teams to agree to anything.