Herschel / 2 = PFHOF

It’s hard for any player to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In most cases, the selectors’ minds are already made up. No argument can sway their thinking. In Herschel Walker’s case, they say you can’t consider almost half of his professional accomplishments. Even then, what remains still stacks up well compared to many of the recent backs enshrined in Canton.

Pro Football Hall of Fame experts say USFL yards shouldn’t be counted as a contributing factor for induction, yet USFL stars Jim Kelly, Reggie White, Steve Young, and Gary Zimmerman’s PFHOF bios mention their time in the USFL. No problem, throw out Herschel’s 7115 USFL yards.

Pro Football Hall of Fame experts say return yards shouldn’t be counted as a contributing factor for induction, yet career return men like Devin Hester are considered. No problem, throw out Herschel’s 5084 return yards.

Even with the equivalent of having both arms tied behind his back, that still leaves Herschel with 13084 NFL yards from scrimmage (rushing and receiving). This compares favorably to 22 recent hall of fame backs, particularly those from his era like Marcus Allen, Thurman Thomas, Franco Harris, and Jerome Bettis.

Of these 22, only two gained more receiving yards than Herschel. Marcus Allen played in the same era as Walker, played four more years than Walker, and averaged 77 fewer receiving yards per season than Walker. Marshall Faulk’s career only overlapped Herschel by three seasons, and played in the prolific St. Louis Rams greatest show on turf passing game. Years later LaDainian Tomlinson averaged more receiving yards than Herschel, but fell short of Walker’s 4859 career receiving total.

Of these 22, only Herschel played tailback, fullback, tight end, flanker, wide receiver, and special teams. Seven of the 22 played in the more pass-happy era after Walker retired.

.avg..YD SCR..rush...rec..yrs..era.

1819 18190 15269 2921 10 89-98 Barry Sanders

1678 18456 13684 4772 11 01-11 LaDainian Tomlinson

1646 14811 12312 2499 09 57-65 Jim Brown

1636 21264 16726 4538 13 75-87 Walter Payton

1596 19154 12279 6875 12 94-05 Marshall Faulk

1585 17430 14101 3329 11 95-05 Curtis Martin

1440 21579 18355 3224 15 90-04 Emmitt Smith

1419 15610 12246 3364 11 99-09 Edgerrin James

1400 15396 13259 2137 11 83-93 Eric Dickerson

1358 16293 12739 3554 12 77-88 Tony Dorsett

1277 10213 09407 0806 08 78-85 Earl Campbell

1270 08887 07607 1280 07 95-01 Terrell Davis

1216 13378 11236 2142 11 69-79 OJ Simpson

1162 15111 13662 1449 13 93-05 Jerome Bettis

1108 14407 12120 2287 13 72-84 Franco Harris

1103 17654 12243 5411 16 82-97 Marcus Allen

1102 16532 12074 4458 13 88-00 Thurman Thomas

1090 13084 08225 4859 12 86-97 Herschel Walker

0971 08741 06325 2418 09 67-75 Floyd Little

0960 13442 11353 2090 14 71-85 John Riggins

0957 09555 07274 2281 10 64-73 Leroy Kelly

0895 06263 04956 1307 07 65-71 Gale Sayers

0809 08901 08081 0820 11 68-78 Larry Csonka

Had Walker only played seven seasons (like Sayers and Terrell Davis), his 1427 yards from scrimmage per season would’ve ranked 8th all-time.

Had Walker only played eight seasons (like Earl Campbell), his 1417 yards from scrimmage per season would’ve ranked 9th all-time.

Had Walker only played nine seasons (like Floyd Little), his 1373 yards from scrimmage per season would’ve ranked 10th all-time. Had Walker retired after nine seasons, he would’ve been a sure fire hall of famer. But Walker played three more seasons because he loved the game. This cost him a chance at the hall of fame.

YR.#.rush..rec…tot...career..avg

86 1 0737 837 1574 01574 1574

87 2 0891 715 1606 03180 1590

88 3 1514 505 2019 05199 1733

89 4 0915 423 1338 06537 1634

90 5 0770 315 1085 07612 1522

91 6 0825 204 1029 08641 1440   

92 7 1070 278 1348 09989 1427 8th vs T Davis 1270

93 8 0746 610 1356 11335 1417 9th vs Earl’s 1277

94 9 0528 500 1028 12363 1373 10th vs Little’s 971

No one else had both an 82+ yard run and reception in the same season. No one else had a 90+ yard run, reception, and return. No one else was traded for Emmitt Smith AND seventeen other players and draft picks.  Plus Herschel caught the second-most passes of any rookie in NFL history, which also set a Cowboys rookie receiving record.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_Walker_trade

Those 12677 yards the experts don’t want to count are more than the career totals of six of the 22 hall of fame backs we’re comparing Herschel to. Pro Football Reference compares Herschel’s career to Dickerson, Adrian Peterson, John Riggins, Marcus Allen, Franco Harris, Curtis Martin, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Tony Dorsett, and Marshall Faulk.

Of course, Herschel’s PFHOF candidacy would increase exponentially if you add back those 5084 return yards, meaning he retired with the second-most combined yards in NFL history. Then when you add back Walker’s 7115 USFL yards, Herschel’s 25283 professional yards are the most by any pro player in history. Add his college yards, and Herschel gained more yards than any football player anywhere. But you the jury shouldn't consider these facts, they should instead be stricken from the record.

All that production is still not enough for those frowny faces at the so-called “Pro Football Hall of Fame”. Not enough Pro Bowls, All-Pro, and other postseason honors, they say. The USFL MVP and other allocades don’t count, they say. They’ll always come up with something.