jcohl says:

Hold the phone here.
Lets look at this objectively for a second.
I know almost all of us think this is a colossal mistake, and on many levels it is, but I’ve met herschel Walker on 2 different occasions over the years working various events and fundraisers and he’s never struck me as some sort of self-aggrandizing gloryhound.
On the contrary, he’s every inch the American sportsman, and a great representative of the game, and the Heisman Trophy, not to mention being chockful of class and character.

By all accounts, the guy feels that he never quite “got off” as an NFLer, in spite of being the greatest college football tailback many have ever seen play the game.
This was the opinion of my late grandfather, who was a pigskin addict, and a solid judge of talent. Many a time he would point out to me some sophomore, and tell me he had, “the stuff”, and lo and behold a couple of years later he’s turn out to be Reggie Bush or Eli Manning.

Walker has also dealt with some personal issues, which have been pretty widely publicized in a book he wrote to help him address the problem.
He is plagued by this nagging feeling of “unfinished business”, and as someone who is going thru that right now, I can understand where he is coming from.
More on this for the curious over in the forum under the header ” the jcohl project”.

Now I’m not saying that this sort of thing is for eveyrone, but Walker is both a rare athlete and singular individual. He also carries a blackbelt in tae kwon do, which is more than some fighters who label their discipline as “freestyle” can say.
Yes, he should have done this years ago, but he’s trying to do it now. Maybe he is influenced by men like Randy Couture [46] and Dan Henderson [near or at 40].
IMO instead of hitting up AKA, which is a great camp, he should reach out to Couture and ask for help, the way Vitor Belfort did. Couture should understand better than anyone how to train a man in his mid 40′s, and the results would definitely help.

I know I’ll be in the minority here, but in this particular case, I’m fine with encouraging Walker to try his hand at MMA. It’s no worse and probably a lot safer than when Legendary Jim Brown talked about a comeback with the Raiders at the same age Walker is now, or possibly even older.
Worst case scenario, Walker gets KO’ed, realizes whats the what, and goes on with his life. But maybe, just maybe, he catches some journeyman who takes him lightly, and Walker earns a little piece of mind in terms of his athletic pursuits, and scores a nice paycheck from whichever Japanese freakshow promoter is behind this thing.

The only downside is for Strikeforce, who have their otherwise good name dragged thru the muck, again, like they did with M-1 Global.
Unless, of course, Walker dazzles the crowd with a first round T/KO of his opponent, and becomes Strikeforce’s Couture…
;)