Herschel Walker: NFL concussions aren't always to blame

Ex-NFL star Herschel Walker will lobby on Capitol Hill Wednesday for federal funding for physical education in schools. (Photo: Daniel Shirey, USA TODAY Sports)

Story Highlights

• Herschel Walker says concussion effects can be misinterpreted in players' long-term health issues
• NFL great says he'll have third -- and final -- MMA pro fight in June
• Herschel Walker: "We're all crazy in some sense"

  McLEAN, Va. -- One of the NFL's greatest all-time running backs says the long-term effects of concussions are likely being exaggerated.

  "Everybody blames everything on concussions," Herschel Walker told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. "The NFL has a problem. It has to determine the difference between (the effects of) concussions and depression. If players lose their money, or wife, or children because of what they're doing, they'll act different. But you can't throw everything on concussions."

  Walker, who suffered a concussion while playing at Georgia before he won the 1982 Heisman Trophy, works with the U.S. military in efforts to treat soldiers who had concussions. And he chronicled his own mental health issues in his 2008 memoir Breaking Free, in which he discussed dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as so-called multiple personality disorder.

  The NFL and current and former players are trying to discern the effect of concussions. More than 3,500 former players are suing the league because they contend it did not protect them from long-term damage. Walker, though, says, "You can't just throw everything on concussions."

  He adds that it's not always possible to find a cause for unusual behavior. "We're all crazy in some sense," Walker said. "And everybody tries to throw solutions at things. But what if it's just that you're bad."

  Walker suggests drug and alcohol use might also be factors for players struggling after they've left the game. And Walker, who says he doesn't even take Aspirin, is adamantly against drug use in and out of sports. He says he wasn't aware of performance-enhancing drugs during his playing days, which included three seasons in the now-defunct United States Football League and 12 seasons in the NFL before he retired after the 1997 season.

  Drug use in sports, he says, "Absolutely insults me. ... Lance Armstrong is a jerk." And in the country at large, "Marijuana used to be considered so bad. Now states are voting to legalize it. What's next? Legalizing cocaine?"

  If Walker, who lives in Dallas, sounds a bit like a politician, don't be surprised: He says he's vaguely interested in running for public office -- although he says he doesn't know if he'd run as a Republican or Democrat.

  He'll be on Capitol Hill Wednesday as part of a delegation representing sporting goods manufacturers lobbying for a continuation of federal funding for grants to schools for physical education as well as for new proposed legislation that would allow consumers to spend money from their health saving accounts on sports gear or other things that improve their health.

  Walker, who's helped with that lobbying since 2000, says he's partly motivated by personal experience: "P.E. was my life in school. Without it, I wouldn't be standing here. It gave me confidence when I was an overweight kid with a speech impediment."

  Walker, who owns a food company and promotions firm, is still in excellent physical shape and participates in mixed martial arts. He's expects to fight his third -- and last -- MMA match on Showtime in June, although he says his opponent hasn't been finalized. "It's time to get out," he said. "It's a young man's sport. My problem is I still think I'm young."
  Source : http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2013/03/12/nfl-herschel-walker-dallas-cowboys-jerry-jones-mixed-martial-arts-showtime-us-congress-olympic-bobsledding-concussions/1982735/