(Apologies if the vid takes awhile to load. You try squeezing all of Walker’s BS in to a simple embed code. VidProps: Shoot Media)
We’ve been pretty studiously ignoring Herschel Walker since his bout with Scott Carson got postponed back in November. Somewhere along the way we just got tired of the guy’s running patter. Even last week when the mainstream media grabbed hold of his offhand comment about trying to make a comeback to the NFL when he turns 50 and trumpeted it from the rooftops like it was some kind of actual news, we turned a deaf ear. For our money, 48-year-old dude wants to fight? No big deal. He’s semi-famous, so we gotta put him on the main card? We get it. For real though, the fact that Strikeforce has to go out and sign no-name opponents for the express purpose of getting beat up by Herschel Walker in 220-pound catchweight fights pretty much says it all about the legitimacy of his MMA career.
However, this latest video from the good people at Shoot Media – who in all honesty do pretty great work – sparked our interest. Mostly because it successfully falls in line with the standard Rich-Athlete-Makes-Sacrifices-to-Pursue-his-True-Passion clichés while still giving us a nod and a wink about what an odd, odd man we’re dealing with here. Among other dubious claims made in this vid, Walker says he was just a fat kid with a speech impediment from small town Georgia that no one thought would amount to squat. You know, until it turned out he was one of the greatest natural athletes of all time, rushed for over 3,000 yards in high school, became a national prep scholar-athlete of the year and went on to become maybe the greatest college running back in history. Still, those early years were pretty touch-and-go.
Other things we learn about Walker here include that despite being a mega-rich former NFL star and an “extremely successful businessman” he prefers to live in a simple hotel room while training at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose (My God, a hotel room! Can you imagine?). This, we gather, saves a few pennies that he can put toward his favorite hobby (err, favorite hobby besides MMA): Collecting cars. Walker estimates that he owns “about 63” cars, though he “might be getting another car soon, you never know.”
His favorite ride right now? His tricked-out Mini Cooper. See, we told you he was weird.
The hotel also offers Walker a soothing backdrop in which to perform his ongoing regimen of hundreds of pushups and hundreds/thousands of sit-ups every day. These old-fashioned exercises, we assume, bolster his recent contention that he can still run the 40 at sub-4.5 speeds. Also, the smell must be enchanting.
He’ll need that 4.4 speed when he decides to make that mythical comeback to the NFL we were talking about. Of course, Walker has also publicly claimed to have split personality disorder and to only eat one meal a day (former teammates have called bullshit on both), so who knows what to believe from this guy?
Whatever the truth, it sounds like Scott Carson should be thankful he’s going to face Walker in competition he could actually win this weekend. If the two were going to square off in a pushup contest, we wager Carson would be straight fucked.
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This guy has maintained the same daily regimen for almost 40 years, namely thousands of push-ups and sit-ups a day. That’s sick. My neighbor eats about a thousand potato chips a day – he doesn’t have a heisman trophy.