Herschel Walker Believes He Should Be In The Pro Football Hall Of Fame And You Know What? He’s Right

Herschel Walker Believes He Should Be In The Pro Football Hall Of Fame

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Herschel Walker has been eligible for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame since 2003 and he hasn’t come close to making it. He believes that’s wrong. And he’s right.

Walker, the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner and one of the greatest college running backs of all time, spent 12 seasons in the NFL.

His biggest claims to fame, however, might have nothing to do with anything he did on the field.

The first thing, known as “The Herschel Walker Trade” or “the most lopsided trade in NFL history,” involved Walker being traded to the Minnesota Vikings from the Dallas Cowboys.

In addition to Walker, the Vikings got the Cowboys’ third and 10th picks in 1990, and their third pick in 1991.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, got linebackers Jesse Solomon and David Howard, defensive end Alex Stewart, running back Darrin Nelson, cornerback Issiac Holt and Minnesota’s first, second and sixth-round picks in 1990. Those picks ended up helping the Cowboys get Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Kevin Smith and Russell Maryland.

The second thing Walker is perhaps best known for is turning pro after his junior season at Georgia by signing with the USFL’s New Jersey Generals. THe NFL at the time did not allow underclassmen to be drafted.

He ended up setting the pro football record for rushing yards in a single season with 2,411 yards in 1985.

All that aside, “If you look at my stats, I should be in the Hall of Fame,” Walker recently told the Pioneer Press. “My stats showed that I produced.”

“Let’s just forget about my USFL days,” Walker added. “Look at my stats in the NFL. Look at my combined yards. Plus, I had 500 some catches (512). Those stats are good enough to be in the hall of fame. That’s what people need to look at when they start talking about numbers and all that.”

Let’s look at those stats and see if he’s right.

• In the NFL: 8,225 yards rushing, 4,859 receiving yards, and 5,084 kick return yards for a total of 18,168 all-purpose yards – 12th in NFL history.

• In the USFL: 5,562 yards rushing, 1,484 receiving yards, and 69 return yards for a total of 7,115 all-purpose yards.

• Combined: 13,787 rushing yards, 6,343 receiving yards, and 5,153 return yards for a total of 25,283 all-purpose yards.

That would put Walker 6th on the all time pro football rushing list and would put him number one in all-purpose yards, almost 1,800 yards ahead of Jerry Rice at 23,546.

If that doesn’t make Herschel Walker someone who should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame they might as well just shut the whole thing down.

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Before settling down at BroBible, Douglas Charles, a graduate of the University of Iowa (Go Hawks), owned and operated a wide assortment of websites. He is also one of the few White Sox fans out there and thinks Michael Jordan is, hands down, the GOAT.