I have a great Herschel Walker story...

[PCIntern]

I did not post this before the election, because I didn’t want anyone to think that I had any adulation for him, but now that he’s lost, I can tell the story which is a bit long, but not uninteresting.

Many years ago when I was teaching at Penn Dental School, I was privileged to teach two football stars who both became dentists. We made special arrangements for their curriculum and their clinical work so that they could play ball in their respective seasons, one in the NFL, and the other in the USFL and complete their work on time. Both were extremely bright and interestingly, both graduated from Notre Dame and were stars in the pros. One of the students was named Joe Restic, Jr., whose father had been the Harvard coach. Joe was a punter and free safety for the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL and was one of the nicest people you could ever meet. As far as his physical description, he was very tall with that enormous, powerful upper body, that these players have and clearly muscular legs which were transcendentally strong; you could see it through his clinical scrubs, he was a great raconteur and told his wonderful story which follows.

His team was playing the New York Generals, which of course was Donald Trump‘s team, and on one play, Herschel Walker had the ball, and was running down the sideline and Joe got a bead on him , but as he’s approaching him, he realizes that it’s right in front of the bench and he doesn’t want to drive himself and Walker into the bench and hurt one or both of them so when he begins to tackle them, he hits him full tilt, wraps himself around his waist and almost unbelievably , Walker does not get deflected or misses a single stride so he drops down to his thighs and figures that he’ll just get him down at that point and no matter how tightly he’s wrapping himself around his legs Walker just keeps running. It wasn’t until he got down to his ankles that he was able to trip him up and finally get him down. Now Joe was a star player on the team that was of championship caliber, and thought he had dealt with everything until he had seen this. He said it was transcendental experience

Parenthetically, the other player. I taught was Ken McAfee, who was tight end for the 49ers for some time, and then went to Buffalo where he knew OJ pretty well. after Ken graduated, I ran into him during the OJ trial weirdly coincidentally , and asked him what he thought of that situation , and he just shrugged his shoulders and maintained that political silence that athletes and cops possess, and made a non-committal throwaway remark. So much for inside information.

I will tell you that both of these guys were at the top of their class: no mean feat under any circumstances and were very gifted and impressive students.

Anyway that’s my story…and I’m sticking to it.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

1. I

I was a professional athlete at a world level, so I have a good handle on athleticism from a training standpoint. Walker was tremendously fit. While he wasn't a world class strength athlete, I can say that I have never seen a man as big, heavy and muscular as him that was as fast as him. He was astonishingly quick and fast for his size.

[PCIntern]

2. Interesting...

What I find remarkable about you guys is the average person generally has no concept of how different you are from say a regular guy or gal who is fit and goes to the gym and does some weight training. I am always amused when some ordinary person starts into intimating that he could show up on a field with pro athletes. I tell them that in a contact sport we would need a body bag.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Walker was one of the all time freak athletes

6-1, 225 lbs and ran a 10.22 100 meters in high school. He also was an Olympian as a member of the US bobsledding team. Bo Jackson is about the only RB in NFL history thought to be a superior athlete to Walker. Walker won a Heisman, a National Title, was a star in the pros, then an Olympian, and an MMA competitor.

And yeah, the average person has no idea how freakish pro athletes are. The average person has no idea how freakish even average college football athletes are. The power and speed they possess in their movements is just something you can't appreciate until you see it up close. Played some flag football with a former D1 college running back who was 6-2, 220 lbs, seeing him fly by at that size gave me an idea that even if I had a baseball bat, there would be zero chance for me to stop him running right over me and me getting seriously injured if I was trying to tackle him. You cannot imagine the power and speed, it's like a horse running full speed past you.

And Walker left other professional athletes with that same sense of awe. A freak among freaks. Walker's daily routine at his peak was 1500 pushups and 2500 sit ups a day. And he could walk on his hands at speeds you couldn't even believe. Dude could literally run on his hands. Not sure if there are videos out there, but I've seen video of him almost sprinting on his hands the length of a football field.

He's a folk hero for his athletic prowess in Georgia, kind of a mythical creature, the same way Bo Jackson is a legend in Alabama. Just a guy other freak athletes couldn't even believe existed. That's what he was a viable candidate, he's kind of the Paul Bunyan of Georgia, just bigger than life.

This article gives you an idea.
https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/13829698/when-georgia-herschel-walker-ran-tennessee-bill-bates-oral-history

[LisaM]

18. That's so true. I was keeping score at a softball game once.

After the game ended, the teams wanted to keep playing, so I kept keeping score. People who weren't on the teams (mostly boyfriends or girlfriends) joined in, it was all in fun.

One guy came up to bat and hit a weak dribbler to short. I saw the ball being hit, I saw the shortstop throw it to first, no sign of a runner so I recorded an out.

On the next play, the batter got a solid hit and much to my surprise, the first batter came flying in to score. He was unbelievably fast and someone joked "where have you been hiding him?" Answer: "on the Seahawks".

It was Rufus Porter from the Seattle Seahawks and when he hit that little dribbler to short, the reason I didn't see him on the base was that he was already about twenty yards past it. Nowhere in sight, but he was safe and went back to the base! Anyone else would have been about halfway there.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

8. Yep

I concur. I still hear it today when I go out. And I still get the occasional challenge.

[PCIntern]

14. I treated an ex-NFL player in the 80's

And he told me that when he and his buddies would go out to bars after a game in the visiting city, invariably one or two idiots would try to pick a fight with him or one of his friends.

I remember saying to him that if he hit me just once I would be a thin film on the floor that they would have to use a scraper for.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

16. Understood

I'm still my fighting weight of 220lbs at 6'1". I boxed, wrestled, martial arts, and set a couple of strength records. People know this, yet there's something about these clowns that makes them think they're tough guys. Luckily I have the ability to stop them in their tracks and shut them down.

[Probatim]

9. I have a friend who teaches PT at a decent college and is friends with many pro team trainers

and physicians. She invites them and some of their athletes to class to talk about the care and feeding of other athletes.

Anyway, one of the local NHL players had a deep abdominal tear and she said to me - for all the running, biking, and yoga you do, you will NEVER experience an injury like that. Laughing, she said, it doesn't matter how you fall or who hits you, something else will break or rupture before you have a tear like that.

So I've got that going for me.

[ECL213]

11. I have a buddy who was a fairly good high school football player...

...good enough and smart enough to get himself a scholarship to smaller Division 2 school.

He said that sometime during his first week of practice he got his bell rung so hard that, once he was able to get up, he walked off the field and quit right on the spot. He realized he just wasn't made for the next level.

[True Dough]

3. He was also a professional mixed martial artist in his late 40s

and beating men 10-15 years his junior, which is remarkable because reflexes normally diminish significantly at that age.

No question, he's a physical specimen and tremendous athlete. But he's not fit to be senator and I'm sure glad he's isn't!

[PCIntern]

4. You ain't kidding!!!

[Butterflylady]

6. Yes he is physical specimen

However, he didn't take care of the most important part of body. The brain!

[Warpy]

7. I don't think anyone disputes what a marvelous athlete he was

Ir just didn't translate into being a decent human being and it certainly didn't translate into a political career.

Some world class athletes are able to go on to other careers once their bodies age out of their sports. Others go into coaching up and coming young athletes. Sadly, Walker wasn't either of these. We can speculate on the effects of repeated concussion or possible anabolic steroid use, but the fact remains that Walker needs to stay out of politics.

He does that, he can play the hero for the rest of his life.

[rubbersole]

10. Great story!

[peppertree]

12. That said...

[PCIntern]

13. That's very funny!

Thanks!!!

[peppertree]

15. You bet.

It is what it is.

[relayerbob]

20. LOL. Perfect!!!

[peppertree]

21. Why, thank you.

Between you me, the thought of Walker-on-all-fours losing his temper in the Senate and punching Cancún Cruz or Little Narco in the face gave me a bit of a chuckle.

They'd be hard to ID in the autopsy, that's for sure.

[Pepsidog]

17. I was a pretty good fullback in HS in the late 70's. At 230lbs I was one of the biggest kids on the

team. I went to primarily all white Catholic Prep school in NJ. So I was good, but not great. My senior year we play Woodrow Wilson HS an all black school in Camden, NJ that starred Mike Rozier, a future Heisman Trophy winner from Nebraska. With a minute left I score the go ahead touchdown. We held Rozier that day to probably under 100 yards up to the last play of the game. Down by 4 points at their own 20 yard line and 4th and long, I watch a screen pass to Rozier where every person on our defense had a shot at tackling him but his greatness came through. He took the screen pass 80 yards, flicking defenders away like flies to score the game winner. Rozier went onto break college running records at Nebraska, then to the USFL Houston team where 5 years later I would see him in the Houston airport as I went to law school in Houston.

[relayerbob]

19. The only part of that I care about ...

is the conflation with OJ Simpson. That seems appropriate. Otherwise, if I never hear Herschel Walker's name again, I'll be just fine.