PRO FOOTBALL : Walker, Vikings Get Together on One-Year Deal

Herschel Walker agreed to a one-year contract with the Minnesota Vikings on Monday, ending months of sometimes acrimonious negotiations.

Jeff Diamond, the Viking vice president who negotiated the deal, would not say how much the former All-Pro running back will be paid. Neither Walker nor his Cleveland-based agent, Peter Johnson, could be reached for comment.

The situation appeared headed for arbitration because the Vikings and Walker disagreed about the player’s 1990 base salary, upon which qualifying offers had to be made.

The Vikings said it was $1 million, the amount originally called for in his contract. Walker said it was $2.25 million, adjusted to include the $1.25 million that the Dallas Cowboys paid him to accept the 1989 trade to Minnesota.

Walker’s salary will apparently be somewhere between the two figures.

Diamond said the new contract removes any language that could lead to a salary disparity problem in next year’s negotiations.

Walker was acquired Oct. 12, 1989, for eight high draft choices and five players, three of whom are still with the Cowboys. Because of the deal, the Vikings have had no first- or second-round draft picks in 1990 and 1991 and won’t have picks in the first three rounds next year.

Mike Lynn, then-Viking general manager who is now president of the World League of American Football, made the deal because he considered Walker the final piece of a championship puzzle.

But Walker, 29, rarely displayed the form that made him a 1,514-yard rusher for Dallas in 1988 and the Vikings are 13-14 since the trade. They finished 6-10 last season, last in the NFC Central, and the inconsistent Walker was benched for a stretch midway through the season.

Walker’s disappointing season turned into a bizarre off-season that included a brush with death that occurred when he fell asleep in his car with the garage door closed and the motor running.

Walker has complained about the way the Vikings have played him. He prefers to play as the deep back in the I-formation, but Coach Jerry Burns favors trap plays out of the split formation. Burns has put a one-back set into the Vikings’ playbook for 1991 in an attempt to make better use of Walker’s read-and-react ability and straight-ahead speed.

“I’m looking forward to having Herschel ready for camp,” Burns said in a statement. “We want him to be a key contributor.”

Said Diamond: “He has seen the plans that we have for this year and he is satisfied with what his projected role is. Herschel is important to our offense.”

The Chicago Bears have signed draft choices Chris Zorich and Chris Gardocki to four-year contracts, the team said.

Zorich, a defensive lineman from Notre Dame, was the Bears’ second-round choice. Gardocki, a punter-kicker from Clemson, was taken in the third round.

Zorich, a Chicago native, won the Lombardi Award for the nation’s best interior lineman as a senior.

Gardocki, who entered the draft after his junior season, had 63 field goals and averaged 43.5 yards on his punts.

Details of the contracts were not disclosed.

The Rams announced the re-signing of veteran offensive lineman Duval Love, cutting their list of unsigned veterans to 10, not including defensive lineman Doug Reed, who is not in the Rams’ plans.

Love, 28, is expected to battle for his starting spot at right guard with newly acquired Gerald Perry, Joe Millinchik, or if there is a bigger shake-up, longtime starting left tackle Irv Pankey.

The other unsigned Ram veterans are linebackers George Bethune, Brett Faryniarz and Fred Strickland, offensive linemen Robert Cox, Tom Newberry, Pankey and Perry, running backs Robert Delpino and Buford McGee, and cornerback Jerry Gray.

Wide receiver Flipper Anderson is under contract but held out of the team’s last two mini-camps, asking for a renegotiated deal.

The Rams also announced the signing of free-agent kicker John Hopkins, Stanford’s all-time leader in points scored.