Does anyone know why Herschel Walker wasn't eligible to be selected in the 1984 Supplemental Draft the NFL had for USFL players not previously drafted by NFL teams?
84? I'd have thought it was later.
This draft was "meh" players wasn't it?
Herchel was a gem. He went in the other draft.
Sorry not an answer but Herchel was "the guy" every team wanted from the USFL. Any USFL folding draft discussions included plenty of debate over him
I would beg to differ on the quality of players that came out of the USFL. Don't confuse this with the XFL. You had guys like Reggie White, Gary Clark, Walker, and others who came out and who were stars in the NFL. I don't mean to imply that that was necessarily typical or that the USFL was as talented as the NFL overall, but there were definitely some gems in that league.
No doubtthose guys were drafted by NFL teams though weren't they?
Maybe I'm misreading the first post
The NFL held a supplemental draft in 1984 for all of the USFL players that hadn't already been drafted by an NFL team (like Jim Kelly had been in 1983). The thinking was probably that if the USFL folded at some point there'd be a lot of quality free agents to deal with. So the supplemental draft was for the future rights to USFL players, not for the actual players themselves. When the USFL folded in 1985 its players (Steve Young, Reggie White, etc.) then had to sign with the teams that previously picked them in that supplemental draft. But Herschel Walker wasn't taken in the supplemental draft nor had he been previously drafted by an NFL team. So Dallas spent a 5th rounder on him in the 1985 draft. When the USFL folded after its 1985 season, Walker signed with Dallas in 1986. What I want to know is why didn't anybody draft Walker in the 1984 suplemental draft. He must have been ineligible since surely somebody would have used a pick on him then.
