From sports to politics: former Dallas Cowboy Herschel Walker faces ballot test in Georgia

Former Dallas Cowboys star Herschel Walker finds out how well his talents transfer to full contact politics Tuesday in Georgia’s U.S. Senate primary. Backed by former President Donald Trump, Walker is seeking the Republican nomination for the Georgia senate in hopes of taking on incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock in November. The race takes on even greater importance because it’s crucial to GOP efforts to retake the Senate. Warnock is running for a complete term after winning a special election that helped give Democrats their narrow control of the Senate in January 2021. President Joe Biden won the state by less than 1 point in the 2020 elections, and Trump has repeatedly claimed he really won there.

A former Dallasite, Walker was born and raised in Wrightsville, Georgia. He grew up playing football, basketball, and competing in track and field. After high school, Walker went on to play football at the University of Georgia, where he won the Heisman Trophy and led the Bulldogs to a national championship. He is still considered as one of the best college football players of all time. In 1983, ineligible for the NFL because it did not allow underclassmen to play at the time, Walker was signed by the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League (USFL). Originally owned by oil tycoon J. Walter Duncan, the team sold in 1983 to Trump. Walker played for the Generals until being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1985. In 1989, Walker was traded to the Minnesota Vikings in a deal that helped the Cowboys so much that it became known by some as “the great train robbery.” He played for the Vikings three seasons before moving on to the Philadelphia Eagles and ultimately back to the Cowboys before retiring from the NFL in 1997.