Interview: Herschel Walker
All-American Football Player

What were your dreams as a young man?

Herschel Walker: Coming from a small town it was really tough to dream big. When I grew up in a small town in Georgia, my biggest dream was one day to be able to go to Atlanta, Georgia. To be able to go to Atlanta, which was about two hours and 45 minutes from my home. So, to dream about going to Atlanta was it. You'd think about that - you'd think about that. I never dreamed about football. I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor. So you go to Atlanta, and you're in the big city now. That was the dream.

The majority of the people that I was growing up with were going off into the military. A lot of my classmates thought of going into the military. That was something more worthwhile, that had a purpose. I was always by himself. I didn't drink, I'm not a big partyer, so I love being by myself. Deep down inside of me, I realized that the military has got a purpose. I wanted to go into the military at that time.

What was it like growing up in a small town in rural Georgia?

Herschel Walker: I think growing up in a small town gave me a lot of values. It has helped me to mature as an individual as well as a person. I think as an individual, because it helped me to have confidence within myself. I think today we have to help our youth to gain this confidence within themselves. People use so many excuses -- peer pressure is thier biggest excuse. There's no such thing as peer pressure. If you believe within yourself, there is no peer pressure.

You know what's right and what's wrong. I think every individual know what's right. You can take your most violent criminal, and you have a talk with him, and he will say, "I wanted to get caught because I knew what I was doing wasn't right, but I couldn't stop." So I say there is no peer pressure, if you believe within yourself. Growing up, I started developing confidence in what I felt.

My parents helped me to believe in myself. I wasn't the best looking guy, I wasn't the best athlete in the world, but they made me feel good about myself. "Herschel, you are somebody. Whether you are black, white, it doesn't matter. You are a person and God loves you." So that made me feel good. I was able to feel good about myself, growing up in a small town. And then again, there was real hard work ethics. That's what we need today. Young people, adults, we need good work ethics. Because nothing is going to come to you easy. We've got too much of a competitive world for anything to come easy to you. People competing in everything. It doesn't matter what it is. Football, that's just athletics. But in the business world -- doing everything -- people are competing. So you got to get those very good work ethics, and I think that helped me develop good work ethics, being in a small town.

What kind of a kid were you? What were you like when you were growing up?

I was a little different. I still say I'm a little different, because success to me is not having the most money, or having the biggest car or the biggest house. Success is just being happy. And I try so many different things. I do a lot of different things because I think God has helped me to love myself. I know who God is, and I love God. So, I think growing up as a kid, I used to write all the time. I was always by myself. It's not that I wanted to be by myself, but we lived in a small town. We lived out in the country. There was no one around, so I was not going to use excuses and wander away from home, going over someone else's. I'd sit at home. I wrote. Whatever I could get my hands on, I read, and you know I just was a different little kid, I think.

What did you read that had an influence on you?

Herschel Walker: I used to read the Bible a lot. Read little short Bible stories. And today, whenever I give speeches, I bring up a few of those Bible stories, because those are inspirations to me. Some people get up and they tell you their life story, like a boxer always comes out and he says, "Well, I was never a tough guy, and this guy stole my bike," like Muhammed Ali, "so I went in to boxing and next thing I know, I'm the heavyweight champion." You know, anyone could do that. I don't mean anyone could do it, but anyone could do one of those stories. But no one can die and come back alive again. It hasn't been done yet. There is only one person that has done something like that. So that inspired me. I said, 'hey, this guy's my hero. If he can do that, I'm going to believe in this guy here.' And to see him, who can help the blind to see, people that are sick he can cure. He became the guy that I looked up to. Whenever my parents or anyone started talking about religion, or about God, I eased over there and listened a little bit, because I said, 'that's knowledge.' I'm not a big guy that's going to try to throw religion on anyone because that person has to be accountable for himself. I think that's what we have to do in society today is to be accountable for yourself. I think we have the tendency of always wanting to live someone else's life. We want to tell that person what to do, how to act, but yet, we don't know how to act. I think first, if we learn to act, maybe we can help that other person. That's the way I try to be brought up.

I remember you talking about a race that didn't work out so well. That's a great story.

Not having that athletic ability, and being talked about, kids not wanting to play with you and kids making fun of you. When I was in the seventh grade, I think, they have this race at the end of the school year, like a mile run. And I felt that if I can win that mile run, I'd have all these friends. People were going to come and talk to me because I won the mile.

So about three weeks before the race, my father was a farmer, so he plowed this field and I got out and went into training with my younger brother. We went out and we went into training so I could get ready to win this mile. For three weeks, I trained.

The day came for the race and I got up there with this guy, Willie Jenkins. I remember his name and this other guy, Wells, who everybody predicted they were going to win that race. They were the most athletic kids in my class. And, I got up there right with them to run this race, and we started running. I was feeling good. I was feeling great. I was in shape. No one know I'd been training except my younger brother. So, we were running around the track and about the second lap, something said, "Herschel, you're not going to win." I'm running and I'm thinking, okay, wait a minute. Third lap something said, "Herschel, you're not going to win." And, I'm up front. There's only like...I'm in the second place. I'm right up front. I'm feeling good. I'm not even tired, and going until the last lap. Something said, "Herschel, you're not going to win. You're not going to win this race. You better get out of it. You better get out of it." And, I'm like in second whereas I probably could have won it if I had kept running. And, I said, "Okay. What am I going to do? I'm going to pretend like I pulled a muscle." So, on the last curve, I walked off the field and grabbed my hamstring and sat and pretend like I hurt my leg. And Willie Jenkins ended up winning this race and all day it bothered me.

I remember going home and getting off the school bus. My younger brother ran up to me and said, "How did it go? How did it go?" and I said, "Well, I hurt my leg," and I lied about it. He said, "Oh you know, you'll get them next time." That made me feel so bad, because I lied, and I think the thing is I didn't try. I said then, no matter whatever happened in my life from then on, I don't care what happened. I'm going to give it everything I've got. It's funny, because I see so many people today that don't want to try, and I say I don't care what I ever do, I never give up at anything anymore. I don't care what it is, you'll never see me give up.

What kind of a student were you when you were a kid?

Herschel Walker: I had a speech impediment when I was growing up. I could barely put a sentence together. I could barely talk. But my parents wouldn't let that be an excuse. They said, "Well, you have to work on it." I had a lot of teachers that really didn't pay that much attention to me. Having a speech impediment, they just figured then, it's going too tough for Herschel so we will put him over there in the corner, and we will work with him when we have time, after we work with the other kids. Even though that may have disappointed me in their views, it didn't disappoint me in the way my parents said, "Herschel, you just study this, you study that." And my speech got better. My grades came up. And when I graduated high school, I was valedictorian of my class.

I graduated high school as the Beta Club president, which is a club that you have to have "A"s to be a part of. I was president of the Beta Club. I went into college with a very high grade point average. I knew, from what my parents had told me, that as long as you apply yourself, you are going to succeed.

Too many people today are afraid to step up at bat. They are afraid that life is going to throw them all kinds of curve balls, and this and that. And you know what is so strange, is there is no one in professional baseball that is batting 100. I doubt there is anyone batting 600. There is no one probably batting even 500. But as long as you're not afraid in life, and step up and take on a challenge, you never know what's going to happen. And every challenge that I have been faced, I am going to step up and swing because one time I may hit a home run. And that home run is going to carry me a little bit farther. That's what is so great to me about the Academy here. I've won so many awards in my life. I won a lot of things, but when I got the word about coming up here to the Academy as a student, I was getting so many scholarship offers and I really didn't know what to think of it, until I got here and saw the other students here. And it made me proud to be a part of that.

I was sort of embarrassed, coming from a small town and this and that, and I'm seeing all these kids from all over the country, seeing what they've done, and they had a few whiz kids here that were already in college. It made me proud just to be a part of it. I don't care if I was riding on the coattails, as I felt then. It just made me proud to be a part of it. It inspired me, and I said, "Herschel, you can get better. Why don't you get a little bit better, because the Academy means something. The Academy of Achievement, that's always it, it means something." It just made me real proud when I came up as a student. It's like man, all these other kids here, and I think as an individual sometimes you think, I'm the only one that's from a town that's so small, if everyone breathed at the same time, you'd run out of oxygen. Man, there is nothing there. So it's so strange when I came up to this place that has so many students that knew everything. Your'e thinking, shoot, I thought I knew everything. I thought my mother and father knew everything. Here is this little kid here that knows about trying to put together this sphere that can tell you how fast the speed of light. That was stunning to me.

Where do your values come from? From your family, from your parents?

My parents. Growing up, they worked hard. Everyone in my family were up early in the morning. I used to see my mother and my father go off to work, and come back and, no matter what, they had time for the kids. They disciplined us to do what was right. You knew what to do, and you knew what not to do. And whenever a child in the house went off to work, my parents made him be sure of himself that he if he went, he was going to work. He was not going there to clown around. He was not going there just to pass time away. He was going to work. And he was not going to just try to make a dollar by sitting down. He was going to give everything he's got. And I think because of that, that's why I'm always going to give everything I've got. Because God is going to be proud of you then. There is no such word in my family as "lazy," because there is no such thing. I think, "Lazy" and "I quit" is a bad word in the vocabulary. You never know what's going to happen. You never know.

Who have been the most important people in you life?

Herschel Walker: God, my parents, my wife. I don't have a lot of friends, because I'm always moving around. I don't drink, so I don't hang out in bars. But they've been very big in my life. Because they have helped to encourage me. Sometimes things get tough, and all of a sudden you see people easing away from you. They say to themselves, "I've got problems, and I don't need to hear his problems, and I'm going to ease away."

No matter what, I can call my parents any time of the night. I'm in Europe some time, and there is such a big time difference. I remember then calling my mother; it was about three o'clock in the morning, and I just wanted to talk. She was so happy for me to call. She's waking up. She's happy for me to call. It sort of brings tears to your eyes, because sometimes a boy grows up in his family, not able to say I love you. Over the last year or so is the first time I ever told my parents that. It's so weird because I say, you grew up and you don't even say it. The word is such a short four-letter, short, little word. You just can't even say, "I love you." I started saying it, and it comes so easy now, if I don't say it when I'm hanging up the phone, I have to call right back and say, "I forgot to say I love you all." It's so funny where now it comes so easy. I say, we are sometimes so macho, we forget who we are. And that's something I'm not going to do. I love to work. I love to learn new things. I love to see a lot of new things. I'm not a person that's going to try to impress anyone because I think as long as I'm myself, you either like me or you don't. I can't help that and there is nothing else I can do.

We want to take you back for a minute to being a kid in that small town in Georgia. Back in school. Did you have favorite subjects? You said you liked to read and you liked to write. What did you like to read, and what did you write about?

Herschel Walker: My favorite subject probably was math. I love math. Figures just intrigue me. I was really good at math. English probably was my worst subject. But I used to write a lot of poetry. I used to write poetry all the time. It's a little different now, because I can't just sit down and write; it's something that just came to me. A lot of people say, "Herschel, maybe you are writing because you are depressed," and I say, "No. I write happy things." I write from life to death, write about space. Just something that I am thinking at the time. It's not anything that I can think of right now. If I had to come up with something that just came to me, I think growing up in a small town, I want knowledge. I still think today, knowledge is one of the keys. Because when you are able to understand, life is a lot more beautiful. When you are able to hear another language and understand it, it is literally more beautiful than just hearing it. When you are able to see a painting up on the wall, and understand what you are looking at, it is literally more beautiful. So I used to just read anything. I can remember getting a Sears catalog and thinking, "I don't know why in the world I'm reading about how to make women's dresses. I don't think I'm ever going to become that." I was just intrigued by it.

Did you have a favorite poet or a favorite poem?

Herschel Walker: No, I really didn't. And it's so strange, I never really had a favorite poem, and I never really had a favorite poet, per se. It's not a poem, it's something I read about the footprints in the sand. That has stuck in my mind so much, and I think about it with friends.

God is walking along with you in the sand, and all of a sudden there is one set of footprints, and when you look back, and times are hard, and you ask God, "When things were going well, I looked back and there were two sets of footprints in the sand, and now that things were a little bit tougher, you left me. Why?" God says, "It's not that I left you, it's just that I'm carrying you." That stuck in my mind, because it is so strange how we sometimes just forget. I think, growing up, today is what keeps making me drive forward, is just thinking about the people in my home town that encouraged me, and the people that stood behind me that helped me, and I say, "I'm not going to forget those people because they knew me before anything, and they were right there with me." No matter what, they were right there, and they were cheering me on. They didn't care whether Herschel won that one hundred yard dash. But as long as Herschel went out and competed hard, they were proud of me.

We've read about this chubby kid, this runt of the family, who wasn't much interested in sports when he was growing up. How did that chubby kid become Herschel Walker, All-American?

Herschel Walker: I think dedication, hard work. I wanted to be an athlete because, at that time, being an athlete was considered cool. I was not cool. I was not the prince of the school, or Mr. Big Man On Campus. I just wanted to be acknowledged. I wanted people to come up to me sometimes and say, "Hey Herschel, how you doing?" Rather than laughing at me because I couldn't talk and all this. And so I just started training myself. You know, we didn't have weights, we didn't have a lot of money, but you know, if I could get any little book on the human body, I'd read about it, and I just started training myself. And I liked the way I felt, you know, I felt good about myself, and I love that. That motivated me. Not just in sports, but it motivated me in the classroom. You know, just... it just made me feel good.

I read about another motivation you had: trying to beat your sister in a foot race.

My sister, she is a little bit over a year older. She was fast, and I was that chubby kid. And she was always beating me, she always beat me. I just felt that I couldn't see a girl beating me all the time. And I said, I got to beat her, I got to beat her. And I just trained and trained, and you know, every time I went up to race her, she beat me. Every time I went up she beat me. And after you been beat over ten times, sometimes people got a tendency of quitting. And I said, no, I'm not going to quit, I'm not going to quit. And I kept doing it until I got where I could beat her. And what was so strange about it, is the first race that I ever beat her, I barely beat her. But I think that was like the spring board.

Once I saw I can do it, I said, uh-oh, now it's a little different. Now I'm ready. And I think that's the way the mind works. Sometimes you may not think you can do it. You may not think you can do it, but as long as you've got that doubt, you're never going to do it. I think that's what happened. By me continuing to want to race, and continuing to want to race her, sometime you got to win.

You can take two little dogs. One can be a small dog, the other one is a small puppy, but it's going to grow up to be this huge 160-pound dog. And you can take this one 30-pound little dog that is an adult at the time, and this big dog, as he grows up he is being dominated by this little dog. So he always grows up thinking this little dog can beat him. So he can get to his full size of 160 pounds, and this little dog still is only 30 pounds, but the big dog still thinks the little dog can beat him, so he is afraid of him because he doesn't know any better.

Sometimes that's the way the mind is. If you continue to say you can't do it, you are not going to do it. But sooner or later you got to swing that bat, because you never know what you're going to hit on.

Was there a moment when you realized that you could be special as an athlete?

Herschel Walker: No. I still don't think there was a moment, because I don't think I'm anything special.

You know what I'm talking about. You are not an ordinary athlete.

Herschel Walker: I understand what you are saying, but I think anyone could do it if they really dedicate themselves. It's a lot of hard work.

What did it take for you, Herschel Walker, to go from runt of the family to the Heisman trophy?

Herschel Walker: It takes a lot of hard work. I'm talking mentally, physically, it takes a lot of hard work. You've just got to dedicate yourself. I think that's why I never let anyone read my poetry, I never let anyone see it. I don't think they could ever understand it. When I speak about this, people think I'm absolutely crazy.

I don't drink, I've never tasted alcohol, I don't smoke, I never did any of that, but I can get so high off my belief and my will, that it's almost like you're invincible. I'm so high off God that I don't care what you do to me, you can never destroy me.

What's been your biggest challenge? What's been the hardest thing you've had to overcome?

Herschel Walker: The hardest thing I had to overcome in life? I think racism. That's so difficult because I don't think anyone can ever understand it. It's not the point that people don't want to understand it, but they don't want to touch it. So, like, that's a subject we can't touch, lets get away from it. But you know, it's there. And as long as it's there you got to cope with it. With me, I'm always the type of person, if something is in front of me, let me deal with it. Lets not push it under the rug, or push it to the side because, no matter what, it's going to keep coming up. You know, if you never deal with that dirt up under the carpet, it's going to get larger and larger, and it's going to keep coming up. Little bit by little, it's going to seep from underneath that carpet. So you deal with it now. You're going to try to get those piles out. I think that's been the most difficult thing.

How do you deal with something like that?

Herschel Walker: I think believing within yourself. Believing that no one is better than the other.

I grew up in the South. My senior year was a very big racial - the tension in my home town was a very big deal. It's tough, but you're knowing who you are, and you're knowing that no white's no better than you, Herschel, you're no better than they are. And, I think the biggest thing to help me to overcome is when it's all said and done, God is not going to have a list and say, "Oh, geez. You're white, so you are going in. You're black, you're not," or "You're black, you're coming in. You are white, you're not." God don't care. My mother once told me -- this is almost similar to it -- I was going to church one Sunday, and I didn't want to go. I was tired of going to church and stuff. And I hid my shoes, I didn't want to go. It's funny because I went in to my mother, and she said, "You ready to go to church?" And I said, "No, I can't go." She said "Why?" I said, "I don't have any shoes." You know, you only had one pair of Sunday shoes. And I said, "I don't have any shoes to go." And she said, "No, you can come on and go," and I said "I don't have any shoes." She said, "God don't care how you look." I thought about it, and you know, that's true. God don't care how you look. He don't care whether you are white, black, pink. As long as you've been a good person and you believe in Him. And, I said, "That's the key."

I think we are always putting things in categories. We've got to put someone in a category. He's this, he's that, he's this. You know, that doesn't matter, as long as he can do the job. I think that's what counts.

You are out there in the public eye. You are a professional athlete. You must read the sports pages...

I never read an article about myself. Since I've been playing I've never read anything about myself. I'm not a big sports page reader. I don't read sports pages. One reason was, I don't read about myself because I know myself better than the person that's writing the article. I don't read a lot of the sports because I think people sometimes either build it up, or you have this guy that hates sports that is going to write bad about it, so I figure I'm not going to read it. Because I'm not going to let him put an idea into my head. I think reporters do not realize that they do that. They will continue to say, "We are giving the news." But you put a idea in someone's head. They take an athlete, they build this athlete up, the kids look up to him, and make him the best thing in the world, and this athlete make one mistake, they write bad about him, saying he's a bum, he's this, he's that. Then on the next day, they build him back up again. So a kid may get that idea, and say, hey, I can do that. I can be great, and I can make a mistake, and I'll go down and come right back up. That's not the way life is. And I think when you are writing an article, I feel, you've got to put what's true. You can't fabricate. You can't just build it up. You know, if you want to write for the National Enquirer, you do that, but if you are going to write for the people, lets' write. You got to use the pen in the correct way. That's the reason why I don't read a lot of sports stuff.

I've read that one thing that you had to do to build yourself up was an incredible amount of push-ups and wind sprints. I mean, give us an idea of the kinds of things you had to do to get to where you wanted to be.

Herschel Walker: I didn't grow up - my parents didn't have a lot of money. My high school didn't have a lot of money to afford a lot of the expensive weights. You know all this stuff. They used that as an excuse. I started doing push-ups and sit-ups during commercials as I was watching TV. And started doing about, sometimes 2,000 push-ups, 3,000 sit-ups, 1500 pull-ups, 1000 dips, or different things like that. I started creating different hand positions for all that, then I learned that could work you out.

In the olden days, that's what people used to do. People sit around now saying, "Let me create this machine that will work this muscle here for someone, and I can make a billion dollars." He don't even use the machine, but he wants to create it so that he can make money off of it. But I'm doing it to work myself. I have a lot of people that write to me saying "Herschel, why don't you come train me, I'll pay you this, I'll pay you that." And I say no. Your body is different from my body. This may work good for you and not work good for me. Or good for me and not so good for you. I just can't just say this is going to be great for you. Probably it will help you a little bit. But there may be another thing that you need to do, that will be a little bit better.

In all the things that you have done, what gives you the most satisfaction?

Herschel Walker: Of all the things I've ever done, I think getting married. The reason I say that is, I was a person that was always by myself a lot. I think getting married gave me a best friend. It gave me a person that, she may not know all of Herschel, but she knows me better than anyone else. They always say you want to marry someone like your mother, and I don't want to say that my wife is like my mother, but you know, my mother knows me, but then my mother says she doesn't know me. My wife says she knows me and then she says she doesn't. It gave me a best friend, and someone that I can rely on, and I can act silly sometimes, and they are not going to judge me on that act. People sometimes judge you, but you have a right to be free a little bit. You have a right just to laugh and act up, as long as it's not in a bad way.

You say you don't read the sports pages but, growing up as an athlete, you've had to take criticism. You've been judged in one way or another. How do you deal with that?

Herschel Walker: You can't satisfy everybody. Growing up, I knew you can never satisfy everybody, so I'm not going to try to satisfy everybody. I am going to go out and do the very best athletically on the field that I can for my teammates, my friends, for me. But you know, if someone don't like it, I can't do anything else. When we try to satisfy everybody, you can't satisfy everybody. That's tough to do, and if you do it once, you're going to be doing it all your life. I think I started out early not doing it, and I think today I am able to. Everyone else hated criticism; I can let it run off my back. Because if someone is criticizing, he's not doing what he's supposed to do. If we are running a race, and he's thinking "Herschel is running with his knee not in the correct way," sooner or later, Herschel is going to be easing up in front of him, because he is not concentrating on what he is supposed to do. Not speaking of the movie critics, because they criticize so many movies, but a lot of the movies they criticize, I like. Who says that they are the people who decide? That's the way I look at life.

What it is like to be out there, on the field, before a full stadium, carrying the football?

For me it is exciting. I don't get nervous. Knock on wood. I don't get nervous before a game, I get excited because this is an opportunity for me to go out there and show what the Lord has done for me. I'm so excited that the Lord has given me this ability, I'm so excited just to go out there, to put on those shoulder pads, put that helmet on, and then go out there and go with it. It's funny because it's not in my nature. I'm more low keyed, but when I get ready to perform, I don't care if there is no one in the stands. I want to go out there and play, because I am ready to go out there and get better. It's like a high. When you are running the ball sometimes, you can't even see behind you but you can feel a person there. It's so wild when you can just feel things, you don't even have to see it. You get the ball, and everything opens up for you. You can tell where everyone is at. Everything is so slow, but yet, you see it on film, it happened so quick. You can tell how many cleats this guy had on his shoes, but yet, it's so quick you don't know how in the world you counted it. You can see this guy coming to tackle, you can see his eyes. You have time to even say what he's thinking. Sometimes the guy is saying, "Oh, geez. How am I going to tackle this guy?" Whether I'm going to hit him at the legs, or try to jump on him and hold him until this...? You can see all this, but yet you see it on film, and it all happened so quick. So, it's like a real big high for me.

Are you ever afraid out there?

Herschel Walker: No. I'm not, because there is nothing they can do to me. What's an injury? Everyone gets hurt. So there is nothing they can do to me.

Is there any moment in your athletic career that stands out for you?

Herschel Walker: All of it means a great deal to me. And now it's hard to say because all of it means so much. I don't think I put one over the other, and this is for all the 15 years.

Everything should be looked at in a positive way. Whether it was something bad that happening in your life, but it helped you to get better. Sometimes your parents say don't touch that, it's hot. But if you never touch it, you're never going to know. So even though that was a negative response, it made a positive response in your mind because now you know not to touch it anymore. Mistakes should be taken as a training tool to help you to get better. I lost a brother, and I was so mad at God, I was mad at everyone, but yet, it helped me to understand God a little bit more, because God is never going to give me a burden I can't handle. And yet, I was being selfish. "Herschel, you are being selfish. God is going to take care of your brother better than you could have done if he was here." I was being selfish. So, that negative response came out to be positive because now I know God a little bit more. I know that "Herschel, you were selfish." Now I know how to react on the next go-round.

What's been your biggest disappointment?

Herschel Walker: My biggest disappointment. Sports or personal? In sports, I haven't won a Super Bowl. but personally, my biggest disappointment?

Do you have any regrets, anything you wish you could do over?

Herschel Walker: No, I don't. Because if I change any little bit of my life, my whole life, I think, will be altered, and I like it just the way it is right now.

Clearly, sports, football, is not the only thing you're interested in.

Herschel Walker: No. I'd love to be in the FBI. The FBI has always been a dream. Even though I don't think I'll get a chance to do it. I've spent two weeks in Quantico, Virginia at the FBI training center, and while I'm in Dallas, Texas now, I may go out with the FBI there and do a few things. I really enjoy that. You know, that's a lot of fun, and I love that. I'm on the U.S. Bobsledding team, I'm very big on martial arts. I say I want to get into a movie with Chuck Norris, and do martial arts movies. And I've danced with the ballet. So I do a lot of things, because I think that's what you've got to do.

Life is almost like a tree for a 15 year-old. Where he don't know where he's going to branch off to, but if you try to stay at this one thing, you know, he's never going to blossom. And the reason why is because you don't know your talents. I never thought I was going to be a football player, but now I'm a football player. Being a football player I was able to go into the business world and do well. I was able to do this, I was able to do that. But I think if I had said, "Okay Herschel, you're a basketball player. Stay with basketball," I never would have done anything. Because I'm not. I can play, but I'm not a professional basketball player. So I think when you're young, sometimes you've got to have an open mind to take on other challenges. You may get into it, and you may like it a little bit more than you think.

Did you have any heroes?

Herschel Walker: God and my parents. I didn't watch sports, so I didn't know anything about sports heroes.

Have you learned anything as an athlete that helps you in the non-athletic world? Were there lessons there for you?

Herschel Walker: I learned to be patient. In business, when you're trying to get a loan, or if you are trying to get something to work out, you'd better be patient. Or have an open mind. In football and, I think, in business, you'd better have an open mind. I learned to really have a strong back bone. Sometimes things are not going to work out, you've got to keep at it. I think there is a big crossover there.

What do you say to a 15 or 16 year-old who comes to you seeking advice?

What I would say to them is believe in yourself. Strive to be the very best you can be. Run the race against yourself and not the guy in the other lane. The reason I say that is, as long as you give it 110 percent, you are going to succeed. But as long as you're trying to beat the guy over there, you are worried about him, you're not worrying about how you've got to perform. Believe in yourself, because I think that's the very big key, and to work hard. To dream, it takes work. To have a nightmare takes nothing. I think if you are going to dream, you've got to be willing to work, because then it can be possible. If you are going to have a nightmare, you don't have to do anything but just hide in the closet. And I say dreams are possible through a lot of hard work. People pray sometimes, and yet they're going to sit there with their hands out hoping God is going to drop money in their hands. It doesn't work like that. If you're going to pray, you've got to get out and do something, you can't just sit in the bed. That's what is so strange. If you're going to pray, you got to make an effort. That's the way it is. If you're going to dream, you've got to make an effort to get out and do something.

What did it mean to you, at that moment, when you found out that you had been awarded the Heisman trophy as the best college football player in America?

I never knew what the Heisman trophy was. I was one of the first freshman ever to be nominated for the Heisman. My sophomore year they said I should have won, and in my junior year I ended up winning. I never knew what the Heisman trophy was. I knew it meant something big, but I never really knew. And when I won it, it meant that I was the best college athlete. But I was ashamed because there are so many good athletes out there and, for me to be singled out, I was sort of ashamed. But yet, after I won the award, I said now this is going to be an inspiration for me, to stand out, for all the guys that didn't get a chance to win it. Continue to go out there and work hard so they can say, you know, that's the guy that won it.

He took it from me, and he deserved it. I don't want them saying okay, he won it, but I should have got it, because look what I'm doing now. I think it's an inspiration for me.

What was it like going from college to the pros?

Herschel Walker: That was exciting, because I got better. I learned more. That's the reason it's exciting for me. As long as I can mature mentally, it's really more exciting for me. I want to learn more, and going to professional football, it helped me to play guys that had been there a little bit longer. Whereas, Herschel, you can be the fastest guy, you can be one of the strongest guys, but you're not going to be better until you are a little bit wiser. I learned that. I learned different ways to do things that was a lot easier, didn't take as much strength and as much speed, just took knowledge. And I had that open mind to listen.

Still learning?

Herschel Walker: I'm learning every day. I think when it gets to the point where I'm not learning, or where I'm just pushing myself, I'm giving it up. Because then I think I'm not going to perform well, I'm just going to be there. I don't want to just show up. If you are not going to show up and dance at the party, don't go. It's called a party, so you've got to have fun. And because I don't drink, I reckon I've got to dance.

Like it or not, people look to you. I won't use the word role model, but what kind of responsibility do you feel, as an athlete, as a very well known and admired person?

Herschel Walker: I don't feel a big responsibility. I think, as an adult, we all are role models. Because if little kids see an adult doing something, they think that it's okay. For myself, I don't feel responsibility. No matter what, I'm going to do the very best I can do, I am going to be the very best I can be, because I think if a kid can see me doing that, he is going to be the best he can be. But that's the way I am. I think we all should be like that. A role model? What is that? Something that inspires you to do better? I think if we all do better it will make this world better. So I don't think it's a responsibility, because I think if I didn't do that, I'm cheating myself. If I can be the best I can be, I'm helping someone else out anyway.

Have you ever gone back in that huddle and said, give me the ball, I want it?

No, I never really ask, because I hope that the quarterback knows that I want the ball. I think when he look in my eyes he can see that I want the ball. I'm not being selfish, but I want to play. If the clock is winding out and we are behind, then I want the ball. I think he can look in my eyes and say, "Hey, Herschel wants the ball. Let me see if I can get it to him." And you know, all of them want the ball. If you are a professional, you want the ball. That's the type of team I want to be with. I want to be with guys that're not afraid to take that last shot. You have a lot of guys that are afraid to lose it. But if you are afraid to lose, you never going to win.

Even in the fourth quarter, when you've carried the ball 30 times, you are beat up, you are dog tired, do you still want the ball?

Herschel Walker: Yes. That's a part of the game to go out and carry the ball. That's a part of the game to go out and catch the ball. You become mentally weak when you say, "I'm too tired to go on." I've trained all week, how can I be tired? So I say you can't get tired. There is not time to get tired. We don't have enough time for you to get tired. You can get tired tomorrow.

What about team work? What about working with others?

Herschel Walker: That's important. Team work is very important in football, basketball, baseball, very important. Because you are as strong as your weakest link. There are 45 guys on the team, and I made this statement to my teammates that if there is one guy that doesn't believe that we can win, I don't want to play with you. Because I don't want your negative influence over the other 44. I don't want a negative atmosphere around me. I want something positive. I don't care if we are losing, but I want something positive. I want you to believe we can win. Because once it happens, it's going to happen big. I don't want no one that you have to carry, because sooner or later you're going to get heavy. I can carry you a little ways, but sooner or later you've got to stand up and say, "I've got to carry myself the rest of the way.'

Does that work in business as well?

Herschel Walker: Oh, there is no doubt. If you are running a business, and you've got employees and you've got one that doesn't want to do anything but goof off -- the other ones are working hard and they are carrying him -- sooner or later he's going to get heavy. And he's got to stand up or she's got to stand up and be accounted for. And if they can't do that you don't need them around. You hate to say you'll fire them, but you've got to make a change. They may not understand it, but that's the way life is. This is a business, this is a football team. If you want it to be something else, you are in the wrong line of business.

What do you say to a kid who's in high school, and all he can think about is being an athlete? He doesn't study, that's all he thinks about.

Being an athlete is being a competitor. Not on the football field, but in life. And you've got to be able to compete in the classroom. Because you can always be president when you are 60. But when you turn 30 they're going to say you're too old for football. So knowledge can take you a long way; being an athlete can only take you a short little sprint. You want to study hard because then you've always got something. Like I say, it is so great to be able to understand something. To sit down with the President and understand what's happening, and then to go sit out there on the street with anyone, and still understand, that is beautiful to do that. Just to go out and run a touchdown is only great for that time. The next week, if you don't do it, they don't want you around no more.

We'll be rooting for you. Hope you get that Super Bowl ring.

Thank you.