Watchdog

Herschel explaining that he announced he was going to Georgia (over Clemson) despite not really having made up his mind.

“I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to go full swing ahead and you know, I didn’t want to go to college. I was going to the military. My thing was that college was a waste of my time. The reason I felt that, you know, was that you’re going to go to college, and major in whatever and then all of a sudden I’m going to become a … something else. You spent four years doing this and yet you’re going to do something else, so I thought the military was what I wanted to do. I had that strict regimen that I wanted to do this here, so I ended up flipping a coin because I couldn’t tell my parents I wanted to go to Georgia, so I ended up flipping a coin because I didn’t want to disappoint them, so I put Georgia against Clemson. The first flip Georgia won, so I said ‘best out of five’. The next two times Georgia won and I just threw USC in out in California because I figured that’s farther away, maybe that’ll win. But Georgia won the first flip, USC won, then Georgia… What was strange about it was, I was just joking and I told my parents ‘I’m going to Georgia’. I went outside to play with my younger brother, they called Coach Dooley and all the reporters and said ‘Herschel decided, he’s coming to Georgia, he’s coming to Georgia.' Well everyone showed up at my house that night and I was too embarrassed to tell people I was joking, so I ended up signing to go to Georgia and I didn’t want to go.”

Herschel on the training methods of his high school football coach.

“He was a great man uh… and coach Jordan… he coached my older brothers and they were very talented, so he used to look at me and say ‘you know, you gotta have something, you gotta have something’ and after church on Sundays, we used to go out to the track. He’d take me out to the track and you know you see guys today pulling these parachutes…running with these parachutes. Well, my high school had a dirt track… and I used to take this tire, and we’d tie this belt around my waist with this rope on it, put this tire connected to this belt, and that’d throw a ten pound shot in and I used to pull this tire around the track.

People used to laugh, thought I was crazy and they’d say ‘this guy’s nuts,' but they think I’m nuts today too so it ain’t no big deal, but they uh, I used to pull this tire. Well that summer I worked so hard that summer and I was like probably the worst athlete in my school. That summer going from the 8th grade to the 9th grade I became one of the fastest kids in the state of Georgia, and it was just by working, and that’s why I tell kids that if you have a dream, don’t let anyone take that away from you. You know, people may think your crazy and this and that but if you can see it, you gotta become it, but you cannot just think that it’s just gonna happen. You can’t just pray and lay in bed and think that one day it’s just going to fall out of the sky and hit you in the head.”

Herschel on a wacky bet with Jason Sehorn tied to his first game at UGA.

“Jason Sehorn that used to play for the Giants... I played with Jason right here for the Giants. Well, one day in the locker room, Jason said ‘Herschel, uh, you used to play with this helmet that had this bar down the middle’. And I thought about it and said ‘Jason, uh, I never wore a helmet like that’. And Jason said ‘Uh yes you did’. I said, ‘I never wore a helmet like that!’, and he said ‘I bet you a hundred dollars’. Now, I don’t bet no one, unless I know I’m gonna win, I gotta be a hundred percent sure I’m gonna win. My mother told me don’t bet on anything that eats, you know what you eat, a horse eat, a dog eat, don’t bet on anything that eats because you’ll have an upset stomach. So, I wasn’t going to bet Jason. Jason said ‘I’ll bet you a hundred dollars’. So I thought about it for a moment and said you know what, I got this. I’m going to bet him. So I bet him and all of a sudden he brings back this Sports Illustrated that had me wearing this helmet with the bar down the middle. Well, it was my first game I played in, and what was so weird about it (was) that was the game Coach Dooley told me I wasn’t gonna play, so I was on the sideline goofing off, and he called me to go in the game. Well, I didn’t have a helmet. So I reached down to grab some lineman’s helmet and put it on and ran in the game and they just so happened to take this picture of me with this helmet on. So I end up losing, so I found out you know, you don’t realize your mother is smart until you get out of college… so my mother was right, don’t bet on anything that eats.”

Herschel on the Notre Dame Sugar Bowl game his freshman year

“That’s the game I dislocated my shoulder. Uh, second play of the game I dislocated my shoulder. And, it’s funny because the doctors said ‘Herschel you’re not gonna play, you can’t play any more, your shoulder is separated.’ And I remember them telling Coach Dooley and I sat there for a moment and thought… ‘Separated… what does that mean?’ He said your shoulder is out of place.

And me being smart, you know I was (high school) valedictorian, I said, ‘that means if it’s out of place, you can put it back’. And he said yea. And uh, I said ‘why don’t you put it back?’ And he said ‘No, that’s too painful.’ And I thought about it and I said, ‘No, it’s not going to be bad.’ So I laid on the thing, let them put it back in place and went out and played.”

Herschel discusses historic trade between Minnesota and Dallas. Minnesota traded five players and six draft picks to get Herschel.

“Well sometimes, but they (Minnesota) forgot I have alters (alter egos), so they really probably had more players, they just didn’t realize that.”

Herschel discusses his sitting the U.S. Olympic bobsledders down and explaining why they shouldn’t be dismiss his efforts to make the Olympic team.

“So, all of a sudden I get over there and I’m thinking, now: team. Well, the bobsled team, (they) don’t like me. They don’t like me because I’m a professional athlete and don’t feel like I should be on the team. So now, I’m in this cold place, on this team where players don’t like me, and I’m like ‘I can’t play’. So, my driver was from Naples, Florida, Brian Shimer. So Brian and I hit it off. So now, I’m mad. I’m like ‘yo, how can I be over here, I want to be part of the team.’ So I said, ‘I’m going to become the #1 pusher for the U.S.’ So, I became the #1 pusher for the U.S. I think what hurt matters worse… I walked into a meeting and guys are talking about me like I’m not even there. There saying how I shouldn’t be on the #1 sled and this and that, and I open my mouth. Sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth closed and let people think you’re stupid, then open your mouth and remove all doubts that you are stupid, but I opened my mouth and said you know what guys, what’s funny to me is that you guys have been doing this for about eight years, and I’ve just been doing it for about three weeks, and I beat you guys, so that means you’re not that good. So, what you need to do instead of complaining about me, help me, and we can win America.' That didn’t make them too happy."

Herschel talks about Dancing with the Stars.

“Well, you know what’s strange about it is uh, the very first year, I was going to be the first athlete to be on Dancing with the Stars. Uh, I had a prior commitment and I wouldn’t get out of it, and I told the people well, thank you, but I already promised someone else I was going to do something for a friend, and they put Evander Holyfield on the show, thinking a boxer could dance. Everyone knows a boxer has terrible feet.”

Herschel on new martial arts reality show that he’s planning.

“Well I have another show coming out now. Mark Burnett, who is supposed to be the guru of reality TV, I took a show to him that he ended up jumping on and uh, so right now, we’re looking to get the show done. What I’m doing is I’m putting professional athletes who are mixed martial artists against mixed martial artists. I was in Vegas and, I work in Vegas because I own a food company, and I heard one of the mixed martial artists say that they’re the best athlete in the world. And Mr. Athlete over here (refers to himself) says ‘wait a minute, you can’t make that statement, that’s a bogus statement to make’. He says 'no, we’re the best athletes in the world’. And I said, ‘I beg to differ’. And he said, ‘I’ll tell you what?’ I was going to step in the ring then, but said ‘why don’t we put that to a test?’ So late at night, I don’t sleep much, I’m up all the time in the night, I drew up this show and Mark Burnett jumped on it and said he’d love to do it… I’ve been trained in martial arts for about thirty years… I figure I got to do it because I’m gonna make them do it.”

Hershel discusses his multiple personalities.

“I used a term that people don’t like. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three different personalities. So, God had three different personalities, but they’re all good. But in that playbook that God has on my life, Satan has the same play book. So he doesn’t want me to do good things, he wants me to do bad things. So, he’s going to throw in his little mix in there as well and what I gotta do now is go get the help.”

Herschel on his multiple personalities.

“Well you know what, to be honest, I don’t even know (how many personalities I have) and you know, when you look at the facets of my life and people see all of the things I have done, I say that might have been it. I really don’t understand it and I don’t know it, but I say, you know, we all have that.”

Herschel on getting back involved with the NFL to help others.

I’m so upset. I said years ago, if an NFL team drafts an underclassman and the underclassman does not make it, they should be responsible to send him back to school to get his education because now you’re putting a guy on the street who has no money, has no skills because he didn’t finish school and he doesn’t have the money to go back to college, so how can you be a corporate citizen if you do that… And the next thing is, you look at all of the retired players and all of the trouble they’re going through… they don’t want to think about that… They worry about what is in the media now. You know the steroid situation is a serious situation. The players union hurt all of the professional sports. I feel that if any player uses steroids, I don’t care who you are, you are totally kicked out of the league.”