Former Heisman Winner Herschel Walker signs with Strikeforce
by Ian James
Most running backs retire because the physical nature of the position and how significantly it wears down their bodies. Not Herschel Walker. Rather than avoiding contact after football, Walker, the Heisman winning running back and former star with the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys, has found a new career, mixed martial arts.
What makes this event more baffling is that it’s not like Walker is fresh out of the league or decided to switch careers because he wasn’t going to make it in football. He is 47-year-old and played 10 plus years in the NFL as well as a brief stint in the USFL after college. Seems crazy but Walker has always been in great shape and he says that its something he’s been doing for some time now.
"I've been training for several years. I would play college football games on Saturday and then compete in martial arts tournaments on Sunday after church. I'm now looking forward to opening up another chapter in my life and to competing in MMA," said Walker in a news release.
He’s not the first NFL’er to make the switch to MMA but he might be the most high-profile. The current cast of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter has four former NFL players that are all competing for a contract with the UFC. The most notable of those four is Marcus Jones, who played with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven years and was a former first round draft pick.
Walker has become quite the Jack of all trades. Besides having a successful NFL career, he has also competed in the Olympic bobsled and is now a professional MMA fighter.
He has struck a deal with the Strikeforce promotion to fight at an unspecified date. Now that it’s official, he is planning on training with American Kickboxing Academy out of San Jose, California. A good pick as they boast some serious UFC talent in Josh Koscheck, Mike Swick, Jon Fitch, Cain Velasquez and Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson.
Walker is going to have to overcome several obstacles, the greatest being age and the ability to get in peak shape now that he’s 47 years old. If he needs inspiration he doesn’t have to look far as Randy Couture, who is 46, just signed a six fight contract with the UFC and still competes at a very high level.
Once a date and location is set, BetUS will have a line up and some analysis on the fight that will surely draw some interest from a wide group of people.
