FORT WORTH, Texas — Of the many developments from ex-Dallas Cowboys, “Herschel Walker: U.S. Senator” was not on the Jeopardy board when his NFL playing career finished in 1997.
It’s one thing to be a campaigning political hopeful, and quite another to go full on “Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Walker, 60, has made his choice.
Walker is attempting to pull a Craig James and go straight to the United States Senate.
The Republicans are banking heavily on this race, and specifically Walker, to regain control of the Senate. Only one candidate has the full support of former President Donald J. Trump.
On Tuesday, Walker won the Republican primary by a comfortable margin.
This is not some anti-Republican rant. This about Walker’s choice that will determine the rest of his professional life. Will it maintain the myth that is Herschel Walker, or will it end it?
The Myth of Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker was the creation of the last era of sports writers before they were slowly supplanted by ESPN highlights.
He did things as freshman that freshman did not do.
As a junior, he won the Heisman Trophy when the Heisman Trophy still had its weight.
Herschel Walker was a good running back and a great athlete.
He was not as good a football player as Bo Jackson. Herschel was not a superior athlete to Deion Sanders.
But if you read about Herschel Walker and that era of college football, you saw no one had ever seen anything like him.
We had. We just forgot.
We had seen Billy Simms. We had seen Earl Campbell. Gayle Sayers. Jim Brown. Walter Payton.
The myth of Herschel Walker allowed him to be their peers when he was not.
Walker was better in front of a camera than all of those guys, with the possible exception of Deion.
In 1983, New York area businessman Donald Trump invested in the startup USFL and signed Walker to a three-year, $5 million contract to play for the New Jersey Generals.
Walker and Trump were the face and fame of the USFL.
Walker was a good player for the USFL, but Trump took on the NFL, and his famous lawsuit ended with the spring football league collapsing three years into its existence.
The two have remained friends ever since.
The USFL, failed as it was, continued the myth of Herschel Walker.
The myth only grew stronger when Walker’s first NFL team was the Dallas Cowboys.
He was a good player for the Cowboys, but his real value came in 1989 when the franchise dealt him to the Minnesota Vikings in the “best trade” in NFL history.
Again, all this did was enhance the myth of Herschel Walker.
Walker appeared on Oprah. He was pictured in the pages of Time magazine after he tried ballet. He was a member of the 1992 U.S. Winter Olympic bobsled team.
Walker was kissed by God’s good genes, and I have never believed Walker didn’t take a little something on the side in an effort to look like Captain Marvel and Thor’s offspring.
His former Dallas Cowboys teammates when he was with the team from 1986 to ‘89 said they never saw him do his famous, “1,000 pushups, 1,000 situps, 1,000 pullups” routine that he routinely boasted.
Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t.
The consuming public did not care then, nor does it now, how our favorite football players reach proportions normally drawn by the late Stan Lee.
What they care more about is the myth than the reality.
And Herschel Walker was, and remains, one of modern sport’s greatest myths.
Herschel Walker’s Senate Chances
Walker has every necessary quality to win an election for a Senate seat: He’s famous. He’s famous. He’s famous.
Rich people give him money.
Rich people give him more money.
He sounds good on camera.
He looks great in a suit.
He will say crazy sentences, which turn into memorable headlines for Fox, CNN, Vice, Ringer, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, AmericanEagle.Truth, LiberalRants.org, and the rest.
He boasted about graduating in the top 1% of his class at Georgia, but he does not have his degree.
Whether believes what he says doesn’t matter. What matters is a voter will recognize Herschel Walker’s name when they look at the ballot.
By winning the primary, the race for the actual seat will be one of the ugliest of 2022.
If his Senate bid fails, this will officially conclude the myth that is Herschel Walker, and reveal him for what he is: A good football player who still looks good in a suit.
