Amongst the most-discussed features of Herschel Walker’s marketing campaign for the US Senate seat in Georgia are the allegations he had episodes of violence and threatening to commit violence—allegations he later dismissed because the unwanted side effects of a psychological sickness generally known as Dissociative Id Dysfunction, from which he now claims he’s “healed.”
Walker’s ex-wife Cindy Grossman, for instance, mentioned in 2008 that Walker as soon as held a gun to her head and threatened to “blow [her] brains out.” This allegation resurfaced throughout Walker’s marketing campaign in opposition to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, which is able to now conclude in a runoff on December 6. Voters have additionally discovered that on a separate event, Grossman’s sister claimed in an affidavit that Walker advised her he was going to shoot Grossman and her new boyfriend.
Christian Walker, Walker and Grossman’s solely son, condemned the pattern of athletes inflicting or threatening violence—a pattern by which his father has allegedly participated. He referred to as it America’s “pandemic {of professional} athletes abusing ladies, youngsters, and animals” in a 2021 tweet.
We’ve a pandemic {of professional} athletes abusing ladies, youngsters, and animals, however their employers would reasonably gaslight followers into pondering the athletes are victims of a “racist society.”
— Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) November 18, 2021
However Walker hasn’t simply been accused of violence. He’s additionally defended different athletes who’ve inflicted it. For example, he bragged about remaining involved with a person who allegedly choked a girl and threw her onto a sofa with loaded assault weapons. He additionally opposed the NFL’s suspension of two males accused of abuse—one in all whom was videotaped hanging a girl unconscious in an elevator; one other was charged with felony baby abuse for spanking his toddler with a swap.
Right here are a number of the particulars:
In 2014, then-Ravens working again Ray Rice was filmed on a closed-circuit video hitting his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, till she was apparently unconscious, after which dragging her out of an elevator at an Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey, on line casino. He was minimize from the Ravens and later obtained an indefinite suspension from the NFL for the incident.
The identical yr, then-Vikings working again Adrian Peterson confronted felony baby abuse prices over an incident by which police mentioned he used a picket swap on his four-year-old son, leading to accidents to his again, thighs, and one in all his testicles. Peterson finally pleaded no contest to a lowered cost; he confronted a short lived suspension from the Vikings.
In each circumstances, Walker sided with the soccer gamers.
On a 2015 look on the Dan Patrick Present, Walker mentioned he was “upset” with the NFL for the “Ray Rice scenario, the Adrian Peterson scenario.” Walker continued, “When these guys acquired in hassle, the NFL form of turned their backs on them…we [shouldn’t] kick these guys out, as a result of they belong within the League.”
Additionally in 2014, Carolina Panthers defensive finish Greg Hardy was arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend. “[Hardy] unlawfully and willingly did assault [redacted], a feminine individual, by GRABBING VICTIM AND THROWING TO THE FLOOR, THROWING INTO A BATHTUB, SLAMMING HER AGAINST A FUTON, AND STRANGLING HER,” a police officer wrote within the arrest warrant (emphasis theirs). In a movement for a protecting order, the sufferer wrote that Hardy “choked me with each palms round my throat whereas I used to be mendacity on the ground. Hardy picked me up over his head and threw me onto a sofa coated in assault rifles and/or shotguns. I landed on these weapons. Hardy bragged that each one of these assault rifles have been loaded.”
Hardy was discovered responsible of assault, however as a result of his accuser stopped taking part in Hardy’s enchantment, the case was dismissed and his prices have been finally expunged.
Ultimately, Hardy started combating combined martial arts, as Walker additionally did, and Walker has stayed in contact with the embattled former soccer participant. “I’ve saved up with Greg [Hardy]. I’m blissful to see soccer gamers that determine to try this. My hat is off to him,” Walker mentioned on UFC Unfiltered in October 2021.
In a 2012 Chicago Tribune story concerning the Bears’ new receiver, Brandon Marshall, Walker was named as a key “mentor” to Marshall. Marshall was accused a minimum of eight instances of violence in opposition to a number of ladies between 2006 and 2014. On one event, police arrived at Marshall’s house to seek out Marshall and his fiancée bodily combating one another on the sidewalk. (Each have been charged with disorderly conduct, however they didn’t testify in opposition to one another, so the costs have been dismissed.)
Shortly earlier than acquitted homicide suspect OJ Simpson was launched from jail in 2017 for a 2008 conviction for armed theft, Walker advised TMZ, “I feel he’s paid his dues… I’d prefer to see him do one thing productive.”
One suggestion Walker had for Simpson was for him to “mentor a few of these younger children which might be arising on this athletic world, to comprehend that life is greater than sports activities.”