Herschel Walker belongs in the Hall of Fame. Just ask Herschel Walker.
The former NFL running back, who ranks ninth in NFL history with 18,168 all-purpose yards, spoke to twincities.com about his qualifications.
"Without a doubt in my mind, I should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame," Walker told twincities.com. "You look at my stats without my USFL stats, and I don't know how you can argue with that. Look at my combined yards. I'm not one to make excuses, so I'll play by their rules and not even count the USFL stats."
All-purpose yards include yards on kickoffs and punts, as well as rushing and receiving. Walker finished his NFL career from 1986-97 with 8,255 yards. He had 5,259 yards in three seasons with the USFL (1983-85).
According to twincities.com, Walker had amassed 3,142 rushing yards in his first three seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. In 1988, Walker also caught 53 passes for 505 yards.
"It's unfortunate that he left Dallas and came to Minnesota because I thought that if he stayed in Dallas, he could have built on what he was building," said Mike Singletary, a hall of fame linebacker with Chicago from 1981-92 who is now a Vikings assistant coach. "He would have been phenomenal."
Walker's statistics dropped dramatically when he joined the Vikings. He had 2,264 yards in 42 games. His best year came in 1991 when he rushed 825 yards.
"I didn't get the opportunities to run the ball," Walker said. "People said, 'Herschel can't run out of a split backfield, Herschel can't do this.' But you've got to give opportunities to athletes."
The article added that Walker was used to running out of the I formation and that the Vikings lined up in a split backfield. He ran for 1,070 yards for the Eagles in his first year away from Vikings.
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