Friday, January 15, 2010

Which One Of Him Is Going To Fight? One Man's Battle With Dissociative Identity Disorder


On Thursday Herschel Walker did the rounds of the ESPN radio shows I listen to. He will do an Mixed Martial Arts fight tonight at age 47. But that is not why I am blogging about it. I heard him on several shows. They talked about his past and they talked about his successful poultry business and his upcoming fight.

I am a freak. I have never lived in the US but I have a very decent appreciation of US Major College Football. Herschel Walker was one of the first college stars that grabbed my attention. Please understand when we moved in 1980 I was simultaneously inundated with the NFL, The CFL , NCAA football and Lower Mainland high school football. There was nothing like seeing my classmates play football right after I did my paper route and not even score against their opponents. Ten years after I heard of him, I saw him play in person in my first NFL game. Seattle vs. Minnesota. To show you what a small world this is. The son of his college coach was subject of an unrelated Tweet I did earlier today. You don't have to be a freak like me to appreciate what I will tell you next.

Even back then Herschel was a versatile guy. I go back a long way with football that I clearly the times when all players played 4 years of college before being eligible for the NFL. Walker was the first one I heard of that did not do the 4 years.

Despite not finishing college before he played football this guy even back then was into so many things. Martial arts, FBI Agent ambitions, ballet dancer and one of the rare African Americans who tried out for a Winter Olympic Sport. It was only yesterday did I know about his poultry business.

What made the ESPN interviews noticeable was that none of them mentioned why Walker was in the news two years ago. Not sports news but mainstream news. He was diagnosed with having multiple personality disorder. I just found it curious that it was like it did not exist. Anyway there are some of us that remember things that go beyond a month ago and I think it is an interesting thing to put on your plate if you are at all curious about multiple personality disorder.


Ed


http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=4156516&page=1

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/04/15/herschel.walker.did/index.html

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2009/09/herschel-walker.html


http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3202776






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