Thursday marked Episode 300 of the Aaron Torres Podcast, and Aaron celebrated by welcoming a living legend to the show. That's when former Heisman Trophy winner and Georgia icon Herschel Walker joined for a fascinating, long-form interview that ran almost 45 minutes long.
The guys discussed just about everything, ranging from Walker's insane push-up and sit-up routine, to the time he made the Olympics as a bobsledder (during his NFL career, mind you!) and of course his time at Georgia. Maybe what was most fascinating however is what happened before Walker got to Georgia - as he actually wanted to join the military.
That's right, Georgia's biggest competition wasn't any other school, but instead, the United States Marines. Here is how Walker explained it on the show:
"I really wanted to go the military," he said. "I thought I was cut out to be a Marine. You know, I love, I love, the military. I think the military, they're our true heroes. The men and women who serve, I think they're the true heroes. I love the police, I love the blue and I always have.
It was interesting because I didn't sign until Easter Sunday in April and Signing Day is in February. And the reason I waited so long is because I couldn't bring myself to tell my parents that I didn't really want to go college, I wanted to go to the military. Well, when my mom asked me about deciding about school, before I could even tell her about the military, she said to me 'Bo,' Bo was my nickname, she said 'If your mind and your heart is pure of the Lord Jesus, it really doesn't matter what your decision is because God will make it right for you."
Once his mom said that, Walker decided to take the decision out of his own hands, and put it into God's. Just one problem: At first he wasn't happy with the plan God had chosen for him.
"People laugh," he said. "But I flipped a coin on whether to go to military or go to college and it came up for me to go to college. And I was upset that God wouldn't let me do what I wanted to do. Now I [really don't] want to go to the University of Georgia, so I figured my family and everybody in my town, and everybody in the state of Georgia wanted me to go to Georgia, so I was trying to get Georgia to lose this coin toss.
So I flipped between Georgia and Clemson University and Georgia won that flip, and they won that one, and it was best out of five. And then it was Georgia versus USC and it was best out of five on that one as well."
In the end, it clearly worked out for both Walker and Georgia, as he enrolled at the school and became one of the greatest players in the history of college football. Even if it means the Marines missed out.
To listen to the full interview with Herschel Walker, you can do so below on YouTube.
Or download here:
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