President-elect Donald Trump has a new game plan for Herschel Walker, his longtime friend, ally and former football star.

Three years after Trump handpicked Walker to run for the Senate in his home state of Georgia in a crucial, combative, expensive and high-profile Senate race, the president-elect is now selecting his friend to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Caribbean nation of the Bahamas.

"Herschel has spent decades serving as an ambassador to our nation’s youth, our men and women in the military, and athletes at home and abroad," Trump said in a statement Tuesday night on social media, as he pointed to Walker's resume, which includes serving as co-chair of the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition during Trump's first term in the White House.

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Walker is a former professional and college football star running back who won a Heisman Trophy and helped propel the University of Georgia to a national championship.

His friendship with the former and future president goes back to his days playing for the Trump-owned New Jersey Generals USFL football team in the 1980s. Walker also was a major Trump supporter and surrogate in the 2020 presidential election.

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In August 2021, Walker launched a Republican Senate campaign in Georgia after months of support and encouragement from Trump to run for office.

Walker, a first-time politician, was dogged during his Senate run by controversial statements and damaging revelations about his personal life and business career.

The race between Walker and Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock ended up being one of the most closely watched Senate battles in the 2022 midterms. The contest went into overtime, with Walker ending up narrowly losing to Warnock in a runoff election in December of that year.

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This year, Walker joined Trump on the campaign trail in Georgia days before Election Day, as the former president carried the key southeastern battleground state after narrowly losing it to President Biden four years ago.

Walker becomes the third Republican who lost a recent Senate race in Georgia to be nominated by Trump for a post in his second administration.

Former Sen. David Perdue, who lost his seat to Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff in the 2020 cycle, was selected by Trump to serve as ambassador to China, and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost to Warnock in the 2020 cycle, was picked by Trump to run the Small Business Administration.

Trump's naming of Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas is the second time this month the former football star made headlines.

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This past weekend, Walker graduated from the University of Georgia, 42 years after he last attended the school.

College Football Hall of Famer and former Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker walked the graduation stage at the Univeristy of Georgia on Friday, receiving his bachelor's degree at 62 years of age. 

Walker completed his degree in housing management and policy from the university 42 years after he played his last college football season there in 1982, when he won the Heisman Trophy as a running back. 

Walker even struck his Heisman Trophy pose during the ceremony. 

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After leaving the university without a degree after 1982, Walker started his pro football career in the now-defunct USFL, which aimed to be a competitor to the NFL in the 1980s. He played for the New Jersey Generals, which was owned by President-elect Trump at the time. 

After the league folded, Walker entered the NFL Draft and was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in 1986 in the fifth round. 

Walker is most known for being part of one of the most iconic trades in NFL history in 1989. The trade sent Walker from the Dallas Cowboys to the Minnesota Vikings, in exchange for players and NFL Draft picks the Cowboys used to build a team who won three Super Bowls in four years from 1992 to 1995. 

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In 2022, Walker won the Republican Senate nomination in Georgia by an overwhelming majority of the vote after receiving the endorsement of Trump. However, the race between Walker and first-term Sen. Warnock went to a runoff, because neither candidate had received a majority vote in the general election. Warnock ended up winning in the runoff.

Despite losing, Walker has been a vocal proponent of other right-wing figures and principles, and he was a vocal advocate for Trump during this election cycle. 

Walker re-enrolled at the University of Georgia after that senate defeat and finished his degree in less than two years after going back to school. He even reportedly attended classes in person, according to The Atlanta Constitution Journal. 

His graduation on Friday coincides with a number of other former Bulldogs players, as the program celebrated the grads in a post on X. 

Walker has also competed for the U.S. bobsled team in the Olympics, started multiple businesses, done motivational speaking and even taken a shot at competing as a mixed martial arts fighter. 

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