Herschel Walker, a former Olympian and retired Dallas Cowboys running back, told “Hannity” on Monday that the U.S.
Athletes opposing their own country on the international stage are at the “wrong place at the wrong time,” according to Walker, who competed in the 1992 Albertville Games in France.
“Because we are the greatest country in the world, and we do have the proper to protest,” he said, “but I believe it is the wrong place and wrong time,” he added. “As a people, we must decide to elect the right people in office because if you get the right people into office and hold people accountable, we would not have these problems,” he added.
“If you read the Constitution, it talks about everything we want to fight about today — and right now, we have leaders that won’t hold people accountable, so I think that’s the difficulty we’re having,” Walker added.
“But this is the wrong place and the wrong time to [protest] because you are representing the United States of America,” Walker said, adding that his feelings are shared by the NFL, which has announced that “Lift Every Voice & Sing,” also known as the Black National Anthem, will be played before games this fall.
Walker, who is Black, described the shift as a “poor idea” that “opens a can of worms.” “We’ve got to represent the United States of America, and if you don’t like this nation, you don’t have to stay here,” he said.
Walker believes that athletes who protested racial injustice decades ago, such as U.S. athletes, should be remembered.
They were doing so in Mexico City in 1968 since they did not yet have the rights that they possess now.
Parts of the United States were still segregated at the time.
“Recall that there were separate bathrooms at the time.”
Many African-Americans were unable to eat in a restaurant.
They did protest, and now we have the opportunity to be treated fairly, but they are not honoring that and holding individuals accountable for what they are doing.” Presenter Sean Hannity also asked Walker about speculations that he is considering a U.S. presidential run.
In 2022, he will seek for Senate against liberal Democratic Sen.
Georgia’s Raphael Warnock
Walker, who grew up in Wrightsville, added he hasn’t decided whether to run yet and that if he does, it will be “on my timetable.” “Georgia has always been on my mind, that’s what people don’t realize,” he said, quoting Ray Charles’ famous lyric in rebuffing detractors who point to his Texas roots.
“And if people look back at anything I’ve ever stated, I’ve always said I’m a product of Georgia.”
