Former NFL star Herschel Walker on Wednesday said that “the big cost” of his support of President Trump has been the loss of some friends.
“In society today, if you’ve got a Black friend, oh, jeez you’re like king,’’ Walker, who said he volunteered to speak Monday night at the GOP convention, told USA Today Sports. “But not one time has (Trump) asked me to speak for him. I don’t even think he knew I was going to speak this time. I’m the one that asked.’’
“Losing friends has been a big cost,’’ said Walker, 58. “I lost some friends, and that’s what’s so strange about it. How could in a country like America you disagree with someone that you now want to injure that person or you just don’t want to talk to them no more? Where did it get that you become a country like that?’’
“You have people get upset, they call you names,” he said of the criticism he receives for supporting the president. “That’s fine. I’m not going to say a word about it because I know who Herschel Walker is. I was bullied when I was a little boy, I was bullied back then.”
“Today I’m a grown man. So people have their opinion and that’s what’s so wild. I’m willing to listen. I’d like to know every point of view because that would bring understanding to me. And I just tell them about my point of view and that’s when you try to come to an understanding,” he added.
Walker, who was appointed by Trump to the President’s Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition two years ago, insisted the president is not a racist during his remarks at the Republican National Convention on Monday night.
“I take that as a personal insult, that people would think I’ve had a 37-year friendship with a racist,” Walker said in a three-minute speech. “People don’t know what they’re talking about. Growing up in the deep South, I’ve seen racism up close. I know what it is. And it isn’t Donald Trump.”