Image: On this date in 1989, the Dallas Cowboys trade Herschel Walker

[atlantacowboy]

Yeah I know. That trade put a value to draft picks. But the Cowboys weren't even close to the highest paid team back in 1992 and 1993. But it didn't matter, they couldn't pay everyone anyway.

Well, they had a lot of players on rookie contracts in 1992-93 thanks to that trade. But the point is that they could keep whoever they wanted and no team ever had to decide a players value relative to a salary cap.

 

[McKDaddy]

I think people think of it as more of a steal than it is because of how ineffective Walker was after 89.

He wasn't ineffective. The coach (Burns) hated the trade and wouldn't play Herschel.

That was perhaps the biggest mistake Mike made. He didn't make sure the coach was on board before the trade.

 

[Scotman]

We got Parsons in a trade. May be a bigger steal than the Walker trade.

Except that Parsons will never be seen as a product of the trade. We could have taken him right where we were at. Now, if Golston ended up having a Hall Of Fame career, he's the pick we got from Philly, that narrative could change.

 

[diamonddelts]

On this date in 1989, the Dallas Cowboys trade Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for 5 players & 7 picks and win 3 #NFL titles in the next 6 seasons.

I feel much safer with a better family structure since the trade.

 

[Macnalty]

I was mad at the time. I loved Herschel Walker and wanted him on the team. But I was wrong. I didn't realize at the time how favorable that trade was to the Cowboys.

I never entertained that thought. Those days were wild.

 

[joseephuss]

Nothing sneeky about. It was all there in print. Mike Lynn simply miscalculated. Holt was a great player who JJ did keep. He had 9 INTs in 1991. That offseason he questioned the amount of involuntary workouts and Johnson cut him!

You are off just a little. Holt was on the team in 1992 and started 11 games before Kevin Smith finally took over. He also had 9 interceptions his entire Cowboys career, not in a single season. He was a very solid player. He laid a crushing block on a Kelvin Martin punt return for a TD against the Eagles. A block that would be against the rules today.

Darrin Nelson was the biggest name of the trade headed the Cowboys direction. He avoided being cut, but only because he decided he didn't want to be in Dallas. He ended up getting traded to San Diego.

 

[TexasHillbilly]

Set the standard for what teams should not do in a trade.

Broncos didn't learn anything. Can you say Russell Wilson?

 

[Typhus]

Broncos didn't learn anything. Can you say Russell Wilson?

The Donkys thought they were buying another championship.

 

[mrmojo]

The great Randy Galloway had this to say about the trade.............oooops:

“They stood there beaming, Jerry and Jimmy, obviously very pleased with themselves. Jimmy even had to work in a gloat, telling how an unidentified NFL voice had whispered sweet nothings about this being “the great train robbery.”

…but give it a year or two. maybe three, then allow us to gather once again for a replay of Thursday’s events. Roll will be called as we are taking names and checking close to see who is doing the beaming and the gloating. We definitely will find out whose train really was robbed.”

 

[erod]

The senator?

 

[tyke1doe]

I had always liked Herschel.
And I don't care that he lost a spelling contest against an acorn.

You are FUNNY!
Thanks for the laugh.

 

[tyke1doe]

Just a bit of history for the young ones, the trade was not Walker for draft picks. The Vikings GM at the time was Mike Lynn and he had built a perrenial playoff contender in MN. He was not a dumb man. But, what Jimmy did was so far outside the box of the NFL back in 1989 that nobody saw it coming........other than Jimmy. What Jimmy did which was so original and genius was tie each player MN traded to a draft pick. So, if Dallas cut the player, they would get the pick tied to that player. At the time, we were working on a 1-15 season and Jimmy was using the season as one long tryout to see who he wanted. It never occurred to Mike Lynn that a team so bad would cut all those quality players and MN would loose all those draft picks. Guys like Jessie Solomon, Isaac Holt, and Darren Nelson were really good NFL players who would have upgraded the 1989 team.

The trade was not popular in Dallas at the time. We loved hershel Walker. Many Cowboy fans and media were livid about trading our best player AND then turning around and cutting the players you got in return. It made no sense and looked like amateur hour ........ But, Jimmy never wanted the MN players. He wanted the draft picks, and he was alone on an island at the time.

Jerry deserves some credit. Though the trade was conceived and sold to Mike Lynn by Jimmy Johnson, Walker didn't want to go. Jerry stepped up and paid him 1M to accept the trade. (Back in 1989, that was like 5M today)........ without a salary cap, owners could do things like that in 1989.

Good recap. And I remember the trade being criticized by many media people. I think Randy Galloway blasted it.
Many thought Jimmy and Jerry were out of their element and got snookered.

But Jimmy and (yes) Jerry were light-years ahead of this staid league at the time - Jimmy for his understanding of players, the psychological warfare of the game itself and the draft (teams still use Jimmy's draft/trade chart) and Jerry for his business acumen.

By the way, didn't we get to keep some of the players anyway?
Holt was on the 92 Super Bowl team. I can't remember how he engineered it, but Jimmy got to keep the picks AND at least one of the players.

Yeah, Jimmy was way over his head coming to the NFL.

 

[tyke1doe]

P.S. I'm all for trading Herschel Walker now too.

 

[pancakeman]

One reason that people might see the trade as overrated is that it was in additional later trades that those picks turned into the most stellar players. Emmitt was picked not with a Minnesota pick, but with a Steelers pick that the Minnesota pick helped obtain. Woodson was chosen with a Patriots pick that came from a trade of a Minnesota pick. Kevin Smith was drafted from the Falcons' spot in the first round, which Dallas obtained by trading a Patriots pick that in turn had been gained by a trade of the Minnesota pick.
Of course none of that could have happened without the Minnesota blockbuster trade, but at the same time it also required the further wheeling and dealing that the Cowboys did after. The Walker deal was brilliant but so were the moves with these other teams.

 

[Ranched]

1989....Jerry purchased the franchise, drafted Aikman, fired Landry, hired Johnson & went 1-15. Whew, I'm out of breath!

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

You are FUNNY!
Thanks for the laugh.

How am I funny? HOW? I 'm like a clown that performs for you? How exactly am I funny!!!????

 

[calico]

I was very upset on this day in 1989 as a 9 year old. I think I pouted all day. I was afraid jerry was going to move the team if he was willing to trade walker lol. Walker was my hero then.

 

[tyke1doe]

How am I funny? HOW? I 'm like a clown that performs for you? How exactly am I funny!!!????

The way you tell stories. You're just ... funny. (Hands motioning to the air)

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

The way you tell stories. You're just ... funny. (Hands motioning to the air)

Tell me! How the fool I am funny? Is the way I tawk?

 

[NeathBlue]

Obviously way before the internet, so the main way we found out stuff about the NFL was in a weekly paper that came out on a Thursday, and the Ch4 Sunday night show…
So, I come home from the pub Sunday night pissed and put on the NFL, and the Vikings are the featured game…. There was a lot of good Acid about back then and I thought I’d been spiked, because I thought I was hallucinating when Herschel Walker came on screen wearing purple, when I found out we’d traded him I thought they had well and truly lost the plot.
Guess it turned out ok