Does Herschel Walker have CTE?

[milestogo]

He says the craziest things. Is he just naturally stupid or did football do this to him?

There have been accusations of domestic violence.

[hlthe2b]

1. I get p'od when everyone wants to give him this out. I watched years of his interviews at UGA

and he was just as clueless, lacking the ability to converse in any kind of thoughtful and understandable way, nor complete thoughts/sentences, even on issues related to football and upcoming games. As most realize the interaction with sports reporters and their subjects, especially at the college level are pretty simplistic and predictable exchanges, so there is not a lot expected from those being interviewed. But, even then he showed a lack of expected abilities to convey anything but the most simplistic responses.

So, if you want to blame CTE for all of that, you'd have to expect his high school experience to be the most brutal (in terms of direct head trauma) since the gladiators took on the lions and I find that hard to believe.

The truth is that our education system has long failed the elite or promising athletes--especially those of color. His high school certainly did and UGA did not expect much more from him, leading to his failure to complete his degree. Herschel was an athletic hero and that is all anyone wanted from HIM and all that was given back to him.

It is sad, but those who have no desire to learn--DON'T.

[True Dough]

2. This felllow?

Seems perfectly coherent to me. Following in Trump's footsteps in his eloquence.

[elias7]

6. Well, that clears it all up

[Maine Abu El Banat]

7. Now that's freedom!!

[Walleye]

9. What about injecting bleach and sticking ultraviolet light up your ass

[keithbvadu2]

3. Herschel became a carpetbagger in his own home state.

[3Hotdogs]

4. I don't think C.T.E. shows up that way.

Violent outbursts, anger, inability to concentrate are symptoms.


"Just plain stupid," is not a symptom.

[hlthe2b]

5. Yes. Memory issues can be early, but language impacts tend to occur late in CTE

[blueknight73]

8. He could have

But he's always been stupid

[Jilly_in_VA]

10. I don't know if he does or not

but he is objectively stupid and always has been. Don't excuse him.

[Best_man23]

13. Walker is another example of how high schools and colleges failed top tier athletes

Walker went to University of Georgia for four years, but didn't graduate. In fact he once claimed he graduated in the top 1% of his class, and also at one time claimed he was his high school valedictorian (do these statements sound familiar, DUers?).

In truth, Walker was likely shuttled into classes in high school and UGA that would allow him to keep his GPA above 2.0 so he could play sports. This happened to many college athletes (and I would not be shocked if its continuing to happen to this day). What really brought this to light was Dexter Manley, who played for Washington during the same era as Walker; he studied for 4 years at Oklahoma State, but admitted in the early 1990s to being functionally illiterate.

[Sneederbunk]

11. He is smart enough to avoid debates.

[hlthe2b]

12. An instinctive coping skill to avoid ridicule... hardly indicative of any profound thought.