Current GOP senatorial candidate and Bulldogs legend Herschel Walker has been reportedly caught lying about his academic record during motivational speeches and in interviews, dating back as far as five years ago.
Walker allegedly lied about graduating in "the top 1% of his class" at the University of Georgia.
The 60-year-old Georgia icon claimed back in December that he has never graduated from the university after the Atlanta-Journal Constitution had reported that Walker himself claims that he did on his campaign website.
In their initial report, CNN found that Walker also made the claim during an interview on a Sirius XM radio show and during a speech he gave in 2017.
If you are old enough to remember a less polarizing version of Walker, you'll know that he never graduated from Georgia because he was an All-American, Heisman Trophy-winning running back who turned pro after his junior season, far before it was popular to do so. He was the led catalyst in helping the Bulldogs win their second National Championship against Notre Dame in 1981 and is arguably one of the greatest players in college football history.
CNN's report also sites that Walker had a profile done on him back in 1982 where he claims to have maintained a 3.0 GPA during his time in Athens. He later backtracked on that statement during an interview with the Chicago Tribune, saying his grades fell off after a while.
Walker's campaign has provided no proof that any of his claims are true. The Bullodog legend also boasts that he graduated as valedictorian of his high school in his 2008 book Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
“If I’m proud of anything I did in my high school career, it’s what I did in the classroom that I reflect on and relish the most,” he wrote. “I did more than just shed the ‘stupid’ label placed on me as a result of my speech impediment. I shed it, erased it, and rewrote it with the titles: Beta Club president and class valedictorian.”
CNN says that Walker did receive a considerable amount of press coverage while in high school, as one can expect from an elite-level athlete in small-town Georgia, but found no information that he ever graduated valedictorian o his class.
After leaving Georgia, Walker went on to the USFL where he played three years before going on to have a successful decade-long career in the NFL. During his time in the league, Walker was named All-Pro and selected to the Pro Bowl twice.
The College Football Hall of Famer has the backing and support of his friend, former US President, and the owner of the New Jersey Generals (the team that Walker played for in the USFL) Donald Trump.
If Walker were to win the Republican nomination in Georgia, he would be battling against the incumbent Rev. Raphael Warnock, who has been in the Senate for only a year. There is a lot of opposition from the Republicans who say Walker has "too much baggage" to be a viable candidate and many hope he doesn't win the party's nomination for the ever so important senate race.
"There is not a single voter in Georgia who believes that whether Herschel graduated at the 'top of his class' or as Valedictorian 40 years ago has any bearing on his ability to be a great United States Senator," Mallory Blount, communications director for the campaign, said in a statement."
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