Walter Thurmond III is no longer playing football, but he’s keeping up his athletic form in another sport — softball.
A reader of the Philadelphia blog Crossing Broad emailed them, detailing the legendary play of a man simply known as Dick Mahoney.
“The author expected any ol’ Delco dude, but instead got Dick Mahoney, who ‘looked like Eazy-E circa 1988: black dude with a Jheri curl hairstyle, LA Dodgers shirt and hat.’ In his first two games, the story goes, Mahoney hit seven home runs (and it would have been eight if he didn’t overrun the lead runner on the base path). A real-life Steve Nebraska, if you will.”
While Mahoney put up big numbers and helped his team win, he did so like Barry Bonds and remained reclusive with his teammates. That included not answering questions about what he did for a living and how he could afford a Porsche Cayenne.
According to the emailer and Mahoney’s teammate, “Conspiracy theories started to spread that Mahoney was a drug dealer or was in porn (he missed a few games because he was flying back and forth from LA, apparently).”
With a name like Dick Mahoney, just about anything is possible.
Eventually, Mahoney left the team, as he moved to Los Angeles to become a filmmaker. It was at that time that Mahoney revealed his true identity as Walter Thurmond III, former NFL defensive back most known for his time in the Legion of Boom.
Here is the Instagram message in which his girlfriend outed his secret.
In doing so, she also shattered any dreams that Dick Mahoney may indeed be related to the late, great, former ECW wrestler Balls Mahoney.