Herschel Walker trade

The Herschel Walker Trade, also known as "The Trade", was the largest player trade in the history of the National Football League. The trade involved 18 players and/or draft picks. The trade was made on October 12, 1989 between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings.

The Trade

Minnesota Vikings Received:

*RB Herschel Walker
*Dallas's 3rd round pick - 1990 (54) (Mike Jones)
*San Diego's 5th round pick - 1990 (116) (Reggie Thornton)
*Dallas's 10th round pick - 1990 (249) (Pat Newman)
*Dallas's 3rd round pick - 1991 (68) (Jake Reed)

Dallas Cowboys Received:

*LB Jesse Solomon
*LB David Howard
*CB Issiac Holt
*RB Darrin Nelson (traded to San Diego after he refused to report to Dallas)
*DE Alex Stewart
*Minnesota's 1st round pick in 1990 (21) They traded this pick along with pick (81) for pick (17) from Pittsburgh to draft (Emmitt Smith)
*Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 1990 (47) (Alexander Wright)
*Minnesota's 6th round pick in 1990 (158) (traded to New Orleans, who drafted James Williams)
*Minnesota's 1st round pick in 1991 (conditional) - (11) (Pat Harlow)
*Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 1991 (conditional) - (38) (Darryll Lewis)
*Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 1992 (conditional) - (37) (Darren Woodson)
*Minnesota's 3rd round pick in 1992 (conditional) - (71) (traded to New England, who drafted Kevin Turner)
*Minnesota's 1st round pick in 1993 (conditional) - (13) (traded to Philadelphia Eagles, and then to the Houston Oilers, who drafted Brad Hopkins)

Aftermath and legacy/infamy

Dallas ended up with a total of six of Minnesota's picks over the succeeding years, two of which were used to draft Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson. Jimmy Johnson used the other draft picks to make trades with other teams around the NFL. One of the trades led to obtaining the first overall draft pick in 1991, which was used to draft Russell Maryland. In other words, the trade of Herschel Walker to the Vikings contributed largely to the Cowboys' success in the early 1990s. For this reason, ESPN.com's Page 2 lists it as the 8th most lopsided trade in sports history. [http://sports.espn.go.com/page2/s/list/trades/010716.html] Seventeen years later, the trade was still an easy target for satire: one ESPN columnist, assessing the impact of free agency on the NFL, noted that it had almost entirely replaced significant trades and by doing so, "took away one of the greatest shortcuts to becoming a Super Bowl champion: fleecing the Vikings." [http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=mosley_matt&id=2785468]

Despite Walker's performance as a Minnesota Viking, his trade was widely perceived as an exceptionally poor move for what the Vikings had to give up in order to get him, and remains one of the most frequently vilified roster moves of the team's history (indeed, in the history of Minnesota sports). "Herschel the Turkey," a mocking "honor" given out by the Star Tribune newspaper to particularly inept or disgraceful Minnesota sports personalities, is named for him. The trade was also made into an episode of ESPN Classic's "The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame...". In 2008, the trade was selected by SI.com as the number one worst sports trade of all time.

ource

Viking Update: The Herschel Walker Trade [http://www.vikingupdate.com/history/historyprofiles/thetrade.html]