HERSCHEL WALKER

AUTHOR INTERVIEW Herchel Walker on His Book & His Shocking Secret

AYBE THE MOST BELOVED Bulldog of all time, Herschel Walker has been regarded as one of college football’s greatest running backs. He helped lead the University of Georgia to victory in the 1980 Sugar Bowl and the NCAA Championship and in 1982 he was awarded the coveted Heisman Trophy. In 1999 he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. He played professionally in the short-lived USFL and then spent the next twelve seasons in the NFL with the Cowboys, Vikings, Eagles and Giants. What you may not know about Walker is that according to his recently published book, he suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D). It’s a condition in which a single person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities. Walker spoke with Dave Cohen. Herschel, do you remember the first time you thought something might be wrong or not of the norm? I do. It was the incident that happened in the book where I spoke about a guy that did something with a car, not delivering it on time, how just that something so small registered so large on the anger scale of mine and that, at the time, Cindy (now former wife) started telling me things that I was doing that I was really not aware I was doing and I knew I needed help then. It is hard sometimes for a man to say he needs help but, you know, I think having a family that makes you be accountable for yourself, I knew I needed to go get help and that’s when I started trying to research to find out what was going on. For those who may not be familiar with Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D), can you explain in more detail what it is. Dissociative Identity Disorder is really a coping mechanism. A lot of people in the medical world have said that it’s trauma that somebody has suffered. I think that term may be a little bit loose because I think it’s trauma that anyone has suffered. I think they have a coping mecha nism. They have what they call an “alter” that comes in to endure the pain or the suffering or maybe anything. For people to understand it, it’s like kids who have imaginary friends where those imaginary friends are really a coping mechanism for them to overcome things. This is that imaginary friend to its fullest extent. You’ve been up front with regards to the fact that D.I.D is not really like what was seen in the movies Sybil or the Three Faces of Eve, which is what most people first think of. Well, it’s totally different and that’s what I try and tell people. The movie Sybil or Three Faces of Eve, that was entertainment. This is something totally different and this is something that is real. There are people in the medical field that say around 14 percent of people suffer from it. I’m saying that’s totally wrong. I think more people suffer from it. I’m talking about people that are in pain, people that have problems that they’re hiding. And I’m saying, “Guys, there’s no shame in my game.” If I’ve got a problem I’m going to correct that problem because I want to be a better man. Why not live a full and healthy life than a life in pain, a life in the shadows. So many people have this pre-conceived image of who Herschel Walker is. You’ve been a high profile athlete since high school. It’s apparent that you are less con cerned with what people might think and more in tune with being able to help people? Well, that’s exactly right because God doesn’t really care about this football thing. I don’t think he has a favorite team. He’s not going to bless one team over another but what he does care about is what are you going to do for someone else? I had an opportunity to watch a lot of this YouTube stuff, which is sad when I watch girls beating up other girls and you have crowds standing around or guys beating other guys and crowds standing around doing nothing. To me they’re just as guilty. So, if I had not written this book I’d have been just as guilty as not saying anything when I have the opportunity to help someone. Was this book, the process of writing it, in some way a form of therapy for you? You’re totally right. When I first stated writing, that’s exactly why I was writing. I was just writing this for therapy. Now I have over fifteen hundred pages. It was not going to be a book. Someone happened to get it and read it and they decided that they wanted to do a book. They said, “Herschel, you’ve got to turn this into a book.” It was strange because I didn’t even hesitate. The first thing I said was, “If this is helping me then maybe it can help someone else.” There’s no question that you’re helping to bring to light a condition that not a lot of people are familiar with. Has that , in any way, brought you some personal satisfaction in that you may be helping quite a few people? That’s the key for me. There’s no doubt there’s going to be ridicule and people that are going to disagree with it but my thing is “so what.” The thing is is that I want to help people. People question whether it’s real or not. That’s not the question. The question is whether it’s going to get people to get help. For me, I’m not going to change. The things I’ve done on the football field are not going to change. The things I’ve done in my business world are not going to change. But what I could change is change lives. I could change my life because I know that if I had not gotten help I would be dead or I would be in prison or I would have done something that may have harmed someone else and I don’t think I could have ever lived with that. So now that the book has been written, what is your next objective? Well, the next step is I’m in the process of opening some treatment centers. I’ve already started one in Denton, Texas and I’m starting one in El Paso. I just bought the real estate for one in San Francisco. To me this is real and I don’t care what anyone tells me. I’ve seen it for myself. I’ve experienced it. It’s got nothing to do with money. I tell people, why would I write something like this for attention? You know, nobody wants this type of attention. Why would I write it trying to make money? I don’t need money. I could have written a football book to make money. This is what I want to do because this means something. BY DAVE COHEN WHY WOULD I WRITE IT TRYING

TO MAKE MONEY? I DON’T NEE D MONEY. I COULD HAVE

WRITTEN A FOOTBALL BOOK TO MAKE MONEY. THIS IS WHAT

I WANT TO DO BECAUSE THIS

MEANS SOMETH ING. M