Herschel Walker

Herschel Junior Walker (born March 3, 1962) is a former American college and professional football player and a mixed martial artist. He played college football for the University of Georgia, was a three-time All-American, and won the 1982 Heisman Trophy. Walker began his professional football career with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League (USFL), before joining the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In the NFL, he also played for the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

Early life
Walker was born in Wrightsville, Georgia to Willis and Christine Walker. He was raised as one of 7 children in a blue collar family. Walker said that as a child he was overweight and had a speech impediment. Walker's mother taught him not to use these problems as excuses in life.

High school (1975–1979)
Walker played for the Johnson County High School Trojans in Wrightsville, Georgia from 1975–1979. In 1979, he rushed for 3,167 yards, helping the Trojans to their first state championship. He was awarded the first Dial Award for the national high school scholar-athlete of the year in 1979.

College career (1980–1982)
Walker played running back for the University of Georgia, where he was a 3-time All-American and winner of the 1982 Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award. He is the only player in NCAA history to finish in the top 3 in Heisman voting every season he played football. He is also the only player in the NCAA to be in the top 10 in rushing yards and have only played 3 years. During his freshman season in 1980, Walker set the NCAA freshman rushing record and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting.

He played a major role in helping Georgia go undefeated that year and win the National Championship with a victory over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. He would go on to win the Heisman in his junior year. In 1999, Walker was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and is considered one of the greatest players in college football history.

United States Football League (1983–1985)
With the formation of the United States Football League, Walker saw an opportunity to do something then forbidden by NFL rules—to turn professional after the end of his junior season rather than wait for his collegiate class to graduate the next year. He also sought to choose where he would play professionally, as he felt he could make considerable money from product endorsements, as he was quoted on one occasion: "I don't know if I would want to play in the NFL unless it was for the two New York teams or the Dallas Cowboys." With endorsement considerations in mind, Walker signed with the New Jersey Generals in 1983, owned by Oklahoma oil tycoon J. Walter Duncan, who after the 1983 season sold the team to real-estate mogul Donald Trump. Walker attracted only one major advertising deal, a joint promotion by McDonald's and Adidas.

The USFL had initially followed the lead of the NFL and banned underclassmen from signing. However, league officials concluded the rule would never stand up in court, and allowed the signing. In order to circumvent the league-mandated $1.8-million salary cap, Walker signed a personal services contract with Duncan (later compensated by Trump) to the protest of no one, as the other owners appreciated Walker's name value to the league. Similar arrangements were made later when other big-name college stars signed with the league. Although this move was challenged in court, Walker and the USFL prevailed and Walker began play with the Generals.

He went on to win the USFL rushing title in 1983 and 1985 and in the latter year also gained over 4,000 yards in total offense. He holds the professional football record for single-season rushing yards with 2,411 yards in 1985, averaging 5.50 yards per attempt in 18 games. In his USFL career, Walker had 5,562 yards rushing in 1,143 carries, averaging 4.87 yards per carry, during his three seasons with the Generals. In 1983, he rushed for 1,812 yards in 18 games. In his second pro season, his rushing yardage dropped to 1,339, but he caught passes for more than 800 yards giving him over 2,100 yards in total offense.

Dallas Cowboys (first stint)
The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, suspecting that the USFL was not going to last, acquired Walker's NFL rights by drafting him in the fifth round of the 1985 NFL Draft. When the USFL succumbed after its technically successful but financially fruitless antitrust suit against the NFL in 1986, Walker came to the Cowboys as a phenomenal athlete and possessed world class speed in a fullback body. During his first two years with the Cowboys, he shared duties with Tony Dorsett, becoming the first Heisman backfield tandem in NFL history.

During that time he established himself as a premier NFL running back, but when Dorsett was traded to the Denver Broncos in 1988, Walker became a one-man offense, reaching NFL career highs of 1,514 rushing yards and 505 receiving yards, while playing seven different positions: halfback, fullback, tight end, H-back, wide receiver, both in the slot and as a flanker. He became just the 10th player in NFL history to amass more than 2,000 combined yards rushing and receiving in a season. In the process he achieved two consecutive Pro Bowls (1987 and 1988). In 1989, at the height of his NFL career, the Cowboys traded Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for a total of five players (LB Jesse Solomon, DB Issiac Holt, RB Darrin Nelson, LB David Howard, DE Alex Stewart) and six draft picks (which led to Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland, Kevin Smith, and Darren Woodson). This was judged to be one of the turning points in the rise of the Cowboys to the top echelon of the NFL.

Minnesota Vikings
Nicknamed the "HWT" (Herschel Walker trade), Walker's trade was widely perceived as an exceptionally poor move considering what the Vikings had to give up in order to get him and remains one of the most frequently vilified roster moves of the team's history. The Vikings coaches reluctantly accepted Walker after the trade and never totally used the tool they had been given. From the moment he arrived in Minneapolis there was Herschel Mania everywhere he went. After a 2 ½ hour practice session where he was just taught 12 offensive plays, Walker had an incredible debut against the Green Bay Packers, where he produced the best rushing game by a Viking back since 1983 and the first 100 yards rushing performance by a Viking since 1987, gaining 148 yards on 18 carries.

He received three standing ovations from the record Metrodome crowd of 62,075, with the Vikings winning the game after previously having lost four successive games and 14 of 18 games to the Packers. His production went downhill from there, with the team questioning his talent and commitment to football, especially after he got involved in the Bobsled program of the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, that eventually led him to participate in the 1992 Winter Olympics. Scout.com says, "Walker was never used properly by the coaching brain trust." "Herschel the Turkey", a mock honor given out by the Star Tribune newspaper to particularly inept or disgraceful Minnesota sports personalities, is named for him. Walker played for the Vikings for two and a half years, never amassing 1,000 rushing yards in a season.

Philadelphia Eagles
After three seasons in Minnesota, the Philadelphia Eagles signed Walker in 1992 hoping he would be the final ingredient they needed to reach the Super Bowl. That year he enjoyed his best season as a Pro since 1988 by rushing for 1,070 yards and in 1994 he became the first player in NFL history to have gains of 90 or more yards rushing, receiving and kick-returning in a single season. He spent three season in Philadelphia, leaving after the Eagles signed free agent Ricky Watters.

NY Giants
The New York Giants signed him in 1995 to replace third-down back Dave Meggett, but soon discovered that Walker wasn't elusive enough for the role and couldn't play him at fullback either, because he wasn't that strong of a blocker. While Walker indeed led the Giants with 45 kick returns at 21.5 Y/Ret in 1995, he lasted just one season.

Dallas Cowboys (second stint)
In 1996 he was re-acquired by the Cowboys, where he played his final two seasons as a kickoff return specialist and third-down back. Walker retired at the end of the 1997 season as one of the most versatile players of all time, after gaining over 8,000 yards rushing in the NFL, over 4,000 yards receiving and over 5,000 kickoff return yards.

Legacy
Walker rushed for 5,562 yards in his USFL career. His combined rushing numbers for the USFL and the NFL (13,787 yards) would place him 5th All-Time on the NFL's career rushing list. In 12 NFL seasons, Walker gained 8,225 rushing yards, 4,859 receiving yards, and 5,084 kickoff-return yards. This gave him 18,168 total combined net yards, ranking him second among the NFL's all-time leaders in total yardage at the time of his retirement; as of the start of the 2007 NFL season, ten years after his retirement, he still ranks eighth. He also scored 84 touchdowns: 61 rushing, 21 receiving and two kick off returns for touchdowns. Walker is the only other player besides Derrick Mason to have 10,000+ yards from scrimmage and 5,000+ return yards (all of which were on kickoff returns).

He is the only player to gain 4,000 yards three different ways: rushing, receiving and kickoff returns. He is one of six players (Jim Brown, Lenny Moore, Marcus Allen, Marshall Faulk, and Thurman Thomas) to exceed 60 touchdowns rushing and 20 touchdowns receiving. Another NFL record is that he is the only player with a 90+ yard reception, 90+ yard run and a 90+ yard kickoff return all in the same season (1994). He is the only player to record an 84+ yard touchdown run and an 84+ yard touchdown reception, in the same game (December 14, 1986). That same day, he had 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving. Walker is currently ranked eighth all time in all-purpose yards with 18,168, despite spending his first three seasons in the USFL.

Walker is regarded as one of the top college running backs of all time. In 1999, he was selected to Sports Illustrated's NCAA Football All-Century Team. On the Fox Sports Net show Sports List, Walker was named the best college football running back of all time and was selected as the third greatest player in college football history by ESPN. Walker had his jersey number "34" retired from his alma mater, The University of Georgia. While Walker had a successful NFL career, it was also a disappointment that he never played on a championship team. High expectations were placed on him due to his extraordinary college career and the price of his trade to the Minnesota Vikings. Many of those expectations were never realized.

The move to Minnesota was the turning point in his NFL tenure. In 2008, the trade was selected by SI.com as the number one worst sports trade of all time. It was also the subject of an episode of ESPN Classic's The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame.... In 2003 Johnson County High School named its football field in his honor. Walker was a highly popular and visible personality, even in his college days, as evidenced by the fact that both a thoroughbred and a standardbred race horse were named after him, the former while he was still in college. He also made several appearances in the sports documentary (2004).

On January 29, 2011 Walker announced that he is considering an attempt at returning to the NFL. "I've told everyone that at 50 I might try football again to show people I can do that," Walker said. "I want to be the George Foreman of football, come back and do that one more time... The two teams I would come back to play for are Minnesota or Atlanta. It would probably be Atlanta because that's home for me." According to Walker, thanks to his MMA training, "I'm a much better-conditioned athlete now than when I was playing football. I'm 48 and in better shape now than I was when I was in my early 20s, playing football."

Personal
Walker married his college sweetheart, Cindy DeAngelis Grossman in 1983. After 19 years they divorced in 2002. They have one son together, Christian. Walker is a born-again Christian. He made a guest appearance on The Hour of Power, hosted by televangelist Robert Schuller. Walker has a fifth-degree black belt in tae kwon do and nearly made the Olympic team in the sprint relay. He competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics in two-man bobsled, finishing seventh.

In 1988, while still a player for the Dallas Cowboys, he danced with the Fort Worth Ballet for a single performance. He ran the 100 meters in 10.22 seconds and the 100 yards in 9.3 seconds. He won back-to-back American Superstars competitions in 1987 and 1988. Walker stated in an in-studio interview during BaD Radio on August 23, 2010 that he still performs 3,500 sit-ups and 1,000 push ups every day. He has been going through this same routine since high school. Walker has said that he only eats once a day.

In his 2008 autobiography Breaking Free, Walker revealed that he suffers from dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as "multiple personality disorder". He claimed that due to his disorder, he cannot remember the season he won the Heisman Trophy, let alone the moment. He also claimed that during one episode, he had held a gun to his own head. He stated he did not ever remember doing this. He is getting help for this condition and feels he has recovered by gaining back control.

On October 11, 2011 he visited the Central Park Campus (CPC) of Collin College in Mckinney, Texas, to discuss his dissociative identity disorder and ways to help change the conversation about mental health. The event was hosted by Ascend Health Corporation and the local chapter of Active Minds, a national organization that unites students in the goal to de-stigmatize mental health issues within the college and surrounding communities. He was a contestant in the second season of the Donald Trump reality television show Celebrity Apprentice. Although he owns a food service company, he was fired during the 8th episode for failing as Project Manager on a task to create a new meal for Schwan's LiveSmart frozen food line. Throughout the season, each celebrity raised money for a charity of his or her choice; Walker selected "Alternative Community Development Services."

Training and diet
Walker is known for his unorthodox training and dieting methods. Walker says he sleeps five hours a night and eats only one meal a day (skipping breakfast and lunch). He is a vegetarian and his diet is made up mostly of soup, bread and salad. Walker has never tasted beer or liquor and never took aspirin or other type of medication. Instead of lifting weights, he has a daily regimen of 3,500 sit-ups, 1,500 push-ups and eight mile runs. Walker has participated in a variety of sports including football, Olympic bobsledding, track and field, taekwondo and ballet dancing.

Mixed martial arts career
In November 2007, Walker appeared on the HDNet show Inside MMA as a guest. He indicated that he would take part in a mixed martial arts reality show in the near future (along with José Canseco) and that he would have an official MMA fight at the conclusion of the show. In September 2009, it was announced that Herschel had been signed by MMA promotion Strikeforce to compete in their heavyweight division.

He began a 12-week training camp with trainer "Crazy" Bob Cook at the American Kickboxing Academy in October 2009 in San Jose, California. In his MMA debut on January 30, 2010, Walker defeated Greg Nagy via TKO due to strikes at Strikeforce: Miami. According to Scott Coker, the Strikeforce CEO, Walker pledged to donate his fight purse to charity. Scott Coker announced Walker would be fighting again on Dec 4, 2010 in St. Louis, Mo.

Strikeforce confirmed that Walker would face former WEC fighter Scott Carson when he made his second appearance in the Strikeforce cage. Walker was forced off the Strikeforce card on December 4 due to a cut suffered in training that required seven stitches. They fought later on January 29, 2011, and Walker defeated Carson via TKO (strikes) at 3:13 of round 1. Following his second victory, Walker looks to continue his MMA career.