Herschel Walker in the Hall of Fame?

"Walker’s USFL stats really were amazing. In 1985 he carried 438 times for 2,411 yards and 21 touchdowns, still the most rushing yards anyone has ever had in any season of any professional football league...[then] ninth in NFL history in all-purpose yards, with 18,168, but if you add in the numbers he put up in the USFL, he’d surpass Jerry Rice for first place all-time."

Sounds legit. And since it's called the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and not just the NFL Hall of Fame, induct him yesterday imo.

He's famous all right.

Herschel Walker was an amazing athlete and definitely amazing, but I just don't see it happening. He was great definitely HOF talent, but he played on some pretty crappy NFL teams. Where you end up playing is such a big part of success in the NFL, I just don't think that is considered as much as it should. He was freaking amazing at Georgia.

A dude from that period that really should get more props is Roger Craig. Of course, he got lucky and got drafted by a great club.

jim kelly's usfl career was a factor in his induction so it's not like it 'doesn't count' but it wasn't a major factor. i can remember years ago hearing from ppl how surprisingly strong herschel's hof case was, how high he ranked on all time rushers (at the time at least) and how high he ranked (or ranks still) in all purpose yards. not sure how meaningful a statistical measure all purpose yards is looking at this list, not meaningless obv but the dangers of 'counting stats' seem exacerbated here. yes walter payton held it for a very long time and he would make any shortlist of greatest player ever and jerry rice holds it now and he would also make that list, but #2 right now is brian mitchell - would he make yr list? also stunned at how long herschel held on, always think of the trade as effectively the beginning of the end for him but he held on until 97. still that trade is effectively his legacy, it defines 'herschel walker' in regards to the nfl, and that a similar trade doesn't define 'eric dickerson' the same way might be due to the rams not turning into a dynasty but it's also due to the differences between dickerson and walker's nfl careers. maybe if he had actually been the final piece to the vikings puzzle but as it is even w/ those freakish usfl years and acknowledging that those were his prime and that his first two years in dallas he was in a rb by committee situation w/ dorsett, even granting him every leeway i can think of i can't really say he's a pro football hall of famer. he was however the greatest college rb of all time.

I think what hurts Herschel is that his college career so outdid his pro career that people have the misconception that he was a bust in the pros.

If its about "pro football" and not the "NFL" then Doug Flutie deserves some consideration. I believe that Warren Moon's Canada career helped him get into the Hall.

Warren Moon's NFL career was awesome on it's own, the crazy part is that it took until he was 28 to actually get to play in the league.

Walker was in the NFL from age 24 to age 35. In that span he had two 1000+ yard rushing seasons. Only one other season with over 900.

So, no.

Agreed that Football Hall of Fame vs. NFL Hall of Fame is a different story.

his trade should be inducted before he is

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

There are other running backs that have similar tales from that same period.

Billy Sims is a guy no one talks about,he was really good and his career ended on a bad knee injury. That career 4.5 per carry is pretty impressive.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SimsBi00.htm

Terrell Davis was the best running back in the game when he got hurt, won 2 Super Bowls and was an NFL MVP.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/D/DaviTe00.htm

I was looking at William Andrews' stats the other day. In his five full seasons, aged 24-28, he was one of the best in the game. Then he got hurt, had one more fragment of a season and was gone. In that short span he had two 2000+ yards from scrimmage seasons. Walker only had one in his career.

William Andrews was good too, forgot about him.

Jamal Anderson was also not the same back after Atlanta ran him into the ground the year they went to the Superbowl. Dude carried the ball 410 TIMES!

There was a lot of good backs in the 80s, as that was a big part of the game. Curt Warner and George Rodgers were both pretty good players back then, not hall caliber, but quality players.

adrian peterson is now 28 and has carried the ball just over 1900 times + 200 receptions

when will he be out of football

I went and looked up Payton's stats to see how much he carried the ball, which I know was a LOT as you weren't getting no big passing game out of those QBs back then.

I was kind of surprised to see how many receptions he had. Pretty respectable all considering.

I know there was more than few football analysts that thought the Bears kind of pushed Payton into retirement a bit, when he was definitely still talented enough to be playing. In hindsight, if Payton wanted to keep playing, it would have been good for Neal Anderson, as the Bears just wore that dude to nothing. Anderson was really good when he started his career, a solid all around back. Joseph Addai actually had a pretty similar career arc as Anderson, when I think about it.

yeah neal was great. he only had three quality years as a full-time starter and his last good season was at age 26. lots of RBs who look like alltimers are done by 27 or 28 (edgerrin james, terrell davis, shaun alexander), and walter had a mediocre season (by his standards) at age 27, missed half his age 28 year, looked done, then went out and averaged almost 1500 yds per season from '83-'86.

That's one thing about Curtis Martin compared to some of those guys like James and Alexander, he really wasn't better than them at his peak, but he was a better back for a longer period of time.

Terrell Davis lost a step after his injury and wasn't the same player. Before that happened he was really big and he had that starters pistol acceleration and was just gone. Denver had a fantastic offensive line at that point too and I think some of the success for those other backs also blurs Davis results a bit.

Herschel Walker built a dynasty in Dallas - should be in their hall of fame.

To me, he's in the Hall of Very Good.

missed half his age 28 year

^really? Payton didnt miss any games. Unless you're talking about the strike year.

ah you're right I was looking at that season and forgot it was strike related.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

That settles that.