Washington — Herschel Walker takes the stairs.

Two flights?

RICK McKAY / Cox Washington Bureau (ENLARGE)

Herschel Walker was in Washington to promote physical fitness legislation on Capitol Hill.

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"C'mon."

Five flights?

"Let's go. It's what we're here for anyway."

Here is Capitol Hill. All of it. From the Hart Senate Building to the Russell Senate Building through the U.S. Capitol to the Cannon House Building and seemingly every congressman's office on every floor in between.

The what is to promote physical education. Walker is here for the eighth consecutive year on behalf of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

The former Georgia star is bringing his message of fitness to the members of Congress. He is here to help push through a bill, the PEP (Carol M. White Physical Education Program), that in his years of involvement has grown from nothing to allocating $75 million in grants to schools to promote physical education. This year the goal is $100 million.

And Herschel Walker takes the stairs.

"Herschel, hold up," said John Loving, one of Walker's entourage of five on Wednesday. "Somebody saw you walk by and wants to see if they can get a picture."

Three heads pop out of a congressman's door. Three photos are taken. And the three congressional staffers are satisfied. Their boss misses the chance. He is on the floor voting. But chances are Heath Shuler (R-N.C.) has a pretty good mental image of Walker. Doesn't everybody who ever played at Tennessee?

"I remember the first year [Walker] was here and all these people were coming up to him and not talking about his career or even games, but just specific plays in his career," said Tom Cove, president and CEO of SGMA. "They were talking about how he ran over Bill Bates. These weren't just people from Georgia. Everybody knew everything about Herschel Walker. He was just this star that everybody wanted to meet."

Everybody did Wednesday. Walker makes the rounds and an impression.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), "I'll sign whatever he tells me to sign."

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), "We never would have made it this far without you."

Tram driver Eric Gage, "I'm going to be needing that autograph."

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), "You ever thought about running for office?"

Everyman sports hero

Walker is all things to all the people he meets.

To the group of kids he stops from Red Lodge, Mont.

"Who are y'all here to see," Walker asked.

"Herschel Walker," one of the kids quickly responds.

"Now, that's a politician," Walker fires back.

"You know, I've spent a lot of time in Missoula," Walker tells the group. "I ride horses up there. I've got a hat and everything. You don't see a lot of black cowboys. But I'm one."

To the former Marine specialist on the staff of Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas).

"It came down to a coin flip on where I would go to college, West Point or Georgia," Walker said. "If I could join right now I would. I don't think they would have me. But I would join."

To Joel Karlik, a Franklin sports representative, when he sits down to eat chicken fingers at lunch:

"Joel, I think those are my chicken fingers," Walker said.

Not his in the sense that he wants to eat them. (Walker eats only one meal a day and doesn't eat meat.) But his in the sense that his company, Renaissance Man, is the food service provider to the U.S. Capitol cafeteria.

"The funny thing is I sell these to everybody all over the place, and in stadiums all over the SEC," Walker said. "Alabama, everybody. But not Georgia. I thought I could sell dirt to Georgia. Mine are better than what they have. But they won't buy them."

It is a brief riff, one of many Walker has as he walks around promoting his cause and causing heads to turn.

• On running for office:

"I'm trying to get those delegates. I've never done anything wrong. When I was 15 I took a candy bar but I was so scared I just dropped it.

"I think I could carry Texas and Georgia. People in California know me."

• On his hobbies and TV:

"I could get Emmitt Smith to do a dance for me in Florida. You know I was supposed to be on 'Dancing with the Stars,' the first season. But I had promised a friend that I would do the Junior Miss and there was a conflict so they asked Evander Holyfield.

"Now I am doing a show on Mixed Martial Arts with Mark Burnett [Survivor producer]. We're putting that together.

"I'll never forget one time it was a Sunday and Coach [Vince] Dooley was upstairs having brunch and he came down after that and I was there with the first place trophy for a martial arts competition I had been in. I would play football on Saturdays and then on Sundays go to these competitions."

Always analyzing

Walker is constantly thinking and reacting. Salient ideas quickly pop into a head wired with business acumen and drive. And he is just as quick to verbalize them.

Minutes after running into the group from Red Lodge — and taking the obligatory 15 photos — Walker starts to verbalize his latest idea.

"I wonder what it would have been like for me to come here when I was that age. What would it take to get kids from Wrightsville [Walker's hometown] here? We could get some companies to sponsor it and bring them up here."

Loving, a Washington attorney, e-mails the idea and it is set into motion.

Walker has always set things into motion. On the football field he was the catalyst for Georgia's glory years. Off the field he has become a driving force in the lives of many.

He is a father who so loves his 8-year-old son, Christian, that "There are times when I just watch him eat and you almost want to cry it is so beautiful."

He is a child as well, who the year Christian wanted a jump rope for Christmas, he went out and learned right along with his son.

He is a son of Georgia who likes nothing more than to return to Wrightsville where "you can just take your shoes off and run."

And this day, he is a force for a cause, "He's Herschel Walker. You can't go wrong with Herschel Walker," Conaway said.