Biography

Herschel Junior Walker (born March 3, 1962) is an American former football running back and politician who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons.

Walker played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a junior. He spent the first three seasons of his professional career with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League (USFL) and was the league's MVP during its final season in 1985. After the USFL folded, Walker joined the National Football League (NFL) with the Dallas Cowboys, earning consecutive Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors from 1987 to 1988. In 1989, Walker was traded to the Minnesota Vikings, which is regarded as one of the most lopsided trades in NFL history and credited with establishing the Cowboys' dynasty of the 1990s. He was later a member of the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants before retiring with the Cowboys. Walker was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

Outside of football, Walker was a member of the United States' bobsleigh team at the 1992 Winter Olympics and pursued business ventures in food processing. From 2019 to 2020, he served as a co-chair on the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition under President Donald Trump. Walker launched his first political campaign in the 2022 United States Senate election in Georgia. He won the Republican nomination and faced incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock in the election, in which Walker was defeated by Warnock in a runoff election.