5 outrageous off-field statements made by Herschel Walker

Republican Herschel Walker and incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock seem headed to a runoff election in Georgia. Normally, given his standing as a football star in Georgia, Herschel Walker would be expected to cruise to victory. However, one of the reasons he finds himself in such a tight race is because of some of the comments he has made off the field away from football.

This is in addition to many personal controversies ranging from furtive abortion payments to illicit children and alleged domestic abuse accusations. Here is just a sampling of some of his most outrageous comments.

Herschel Walker's many verbal slip-ups

#1 - "I’ve been very fortunate in my military, uh, career – that I was doing a lot of things in the military.”

Herschel Walker claimed that in addition to his football career, he had successful business interests and had a military career. Now, those who have served in the military deserve our deepest gratitude. They sacrifice their lives to keep us safe and no one should pretend to be as brave as they are. Except, that is exactly what Walker did here because he never had a military career.

He has visited numerous military bases as the spokesperson for an organization raising awareness and help for military personnel's psychological health. He has never served in any branch of the United States military. To claim such an achievement as his own was shocking.

#2 - “I’m this country boy. I’m not that smart.”

Before a scheduled debate against his opponent Senator Warnock, Walker tried to lower expectations. He could have chosen any route but he ended up saying he was "not that smart." While that in itself would not be a problem in any other context, it is not something one wants to admit to the general public. Especially if one then has to reach out to the same populace to ask for their votes.

What complicated the pitch even further is him prefacing that by saying he is a country boy. It made it seem that those who are from the countryside are naturally not smart. This is an exceptional generalization that does not have any basis in reality.

#3 - "Guys, I also was valedictorian of my class. I also was in the top 1% of my graduating class in college"

Herschel Walker claimed he was the valedictorian of his class and graduated from the top percentile in college. Now, there may indeed be footballers who are that good in both academics and playing the game, but Walker is not one of them.

Before embarking on his NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys, he played in the USFL for the New Jersey Generals from 1983 to 1985. It was there that he first met Donald Trump, who encouraged him to run for the senate this time. He was able to get to the USFL because they allowed underclassmen whereas the NFL did not. So, quite clearly, Walker did not graduate at all from college, as he claims.

That he felt the need to lie about this even when the general public is well aware of his football career is astonishing.

#4 - “I supervise six hospitals around the United States.”

Herschel Walker also claimed to have supervised six hospitals around the country. Before we even go into refuting the allegations, even common sense should tell us this is not true. Hospitals require able administrators with qualifications, possibly from a health background, and Walker has neither.

His personal financial records have never indicated him owning or operating any hospitals. Interestingly, Herschel Walker has spoken about having a dissociative identity disorder, so gleam what you want from that. However, it still does not minimize how absurd this statement is just at face value.

#5 - "But since we don’t control the air, our good air decide to float over to China, bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space."

This particular statement from Herschel Walker was almost poetic in its outrageousness. On the campaign trail, he was trying to make his thoughts known about climate change policies. He explained why he might be against the USA contributing to global climate change mitigation. The example he used was particularly abdurd.

He claimed that if the USA was to refine its air, then the air would be "good." But if, say, China is not doing their part then their air will be "bad." Since the air "floats," the USA's good air may go to China. In such cases, the bad air from China would need to then move somewhere and then it would come back to the USA. Then the USA would have to make it good again.

To say this is not how air, wind, pollution, climate change or anything else works would be saying the obvious. But the above claim is so outrageous, it still bears repeating.

Herschel Walker has consistently made a mockery of the notion that aspiring politicians need to speak in measured and nuanced language. He seems to say the most outrageous things, without ever pausing to think about the implications.