how in theeeee hell did Jimmy get the Vikings to give up 3 1st round picks, 3 2nd round picks, 1 3rd round pick, and five other players for one single player.
Because that isn't at all anything like what happened.
Here's the actual results of the trade - We gave up draft picks too:
Players/Draft Picks Received by the Minnesota Vikings
RB Herschel Walker
Dallas's 3rd round pick – 1990 (54) (Mike Jones)
Dallas'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)
Mike Lynn, the GM of the Vikings, was certain of three things: One, that Walker was the one piece missing from his team to make it a sure-fire Super Bowl winner. Two: Jones and Johnson were hayseeds who were in over their heads dealing with the Big Boys of the NFL. And three: Johnson was desperate for bodies and Lynn convinced himself he gave up some good ones. Lynn also had no idea Jimmy was sandbagging, using a couple of calls from the Browns inquiring about Walker as the carrot on the end of the stick. The "hayseed" also never had any interest in any of the players Lynn was giving him, only the draft picks attached to each of them if they didn't work out.
Lynn was convinced the players he was giving were better at their positions than anyone Jimmy had on his roster at the time and were a sure bet to stay on the Dallas roster.
Had it worked, had Walker indeed been the "missing piece" and had Lynn drafted some better players with all the Dallas picks he received and had the Vikings won the SB in 1989 and possibly 90, nobody would be talking about this trade even if Jimmy had parlayed it into three later Lombardis. It would have gone down in history as a win-win.
The Vikings weren't really a very good team though, and Walker grossly underperformed. Lynn's drafting was shit, meanwhile Ike Holt did make our roster and was a significant upgrade at his position for us.
Here's our side of it:
Players/Draft Picks Received by the Dallas Cowboys
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) (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 on cutting Solomon) – (12) (Alvin Harper)
Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 1991 (conditional on cutting Howard) – (38) (Dixon Edwards)
Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 1992 (conditional on cutting Holt) – (37) (Darren Woodson)
Minnesota's 3rd round pick in 1992 (conditional on cutting Nelson) – (71) (traded to New England, who drafted Kevin Turner)
Minnesota's 1st round pick in 1993 (conditional on cutting Stewart) – (13) (traded to Philadelphia Eagles, and then to the Houston Oilers, who drafted Brad Hopkins)[1]
You'll note we STILL got the draft pick for Holt even after cutting him at the end of the 1992 season. And this also does NOT count what we wound up with after all the trading was done. Significantly, one of the trades led to us obtaining the first overall draft pick in 1991, which was used to draft Russell Maryland.
NONE of it matters if Jimmy doesn't use the picks appropriately, picking some all-world players. It doesn't matter how many picks you obtain, if you use them to pick scrubs.