By C. Douglas Golden December 17, 2024 at 8:24pm
President-elect Donald Trump has named a close ally as his ambassador to the Bahamas: former NFL legend and Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker.
“Herschel has spent decades serving as an Ambassador to our Nation’s youth, our men and women in the Military, and athletes at home and abroad,” Trump said in a Tuesday night statement.
“A successful businessman, philanthropist, former Heisman Trophy winner, and NFL great, Herschel has been a tireless advocate for youth sports,” he added.
“During my First Term, he served as Co-Chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.”
BREAKING: Trump taps NFL legend Herschel Walker for U.S. Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas pic.twitter.com/NvkZklh9Yt
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 18, 2024
Walker has been associated with Trump since the earliest days of his professional playing career — and his political career has run through Trump’s team, as well.
After winning the Heisman Trophy and national championship as a junior at the University of Georgia, the star running back opted to sign professionally with the premier franchise in the rival United States Football League — which, unlike the NFL at the time, signed players who had not played four years in college — the New Jersey Generals, in 1983.
In 1984, the team was sold to Donald Trump, who added other stars to the Generals — including Boston College great Doug Flutie — although they never won a championship. The league collapsed after the 1985 season, in which Walker was the league MVP, despite the USFL featuring other future NFL greats like Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Reggie White, Sam Mills and Gary Zimmerman.
Do you like Herschel Walker?
Walker then joined the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, where he was again one of the league’s biggest stars and his team’s biggest talent before being sent to the Minnesota Vikings in a blockbuster trade in 1989.
While he would never regain the form he had in Dallas, he retired at the end of the 1997 season with over 8,000 yards in rushing, two All-Pro selections, and two Pro Bowl selections.
Walker was one of the first big names to endorse Trump during his presidential run in 2016; in August of 2015, he told USA Today, “There’s not a doubt in my mind right now he is my frontrunner,” despite the fact that his candidacy was being eyed dubiously by the media at the time.
“I’m not going to say anything negative about him because it’s not true,” he added.
Trump returned the favor; in addition to including him in his first administration, the former president ended up endorsing him in 2021 for the GOP nomination in Georgia’s 2022 Senate race.
“Herschel Walker is a friend, a Patriot, and an outstanding American who is going to be a GREAT United States Senator. He embodies ‘America First’ and the winning spirit of Georgia,” Trump said in a statement at the time.
Walker won the nomination. However, questions from the left about Herschel’s past — including whether he had been fully honest with voters about his résumé — dogged him throughout the race, and he ended up losing a runoff to a well-funded campaign run by incumbent Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture
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