There is no surprise in Herschel Walker's revelation in his new book that he suffers from dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder.   Walker is scheduled to discuss his situation on ABC's "Nightline" tonight.

In his book, "Breaking Free", Walker explains that he had nearly a dozen different personalities and that after his playing days were over, he once sat in his kitchen playing Russian roulette.

Some who have been close to Walker, such as former Georgia coach Vince Dooley, say they never saw that in him.  Others, such as his ex-wife, contend it explains his passing but intense interests in things such as bobsledding and joining the FBI.

I say that Walker's disclosure of suffering from multiple personality disorder is not shocking because I recall -- and I'm sure many other sports reporters do as well -- that Walker had a tendency to constantly refer to himself in the third person 20 years ago.

Now, I realize that a lot of people do that as an affectation and even back then when Walker was doing it, there was a tendency to chalk it up to a giant-sized ego that manifested itself in narcissism.  But when Walker would  say something like, "Herschel tends to perform better when the stakes are greater," or something similar, there was something really weird about it.

If a supremely self-confident guy, let's say  Deion Sanders, would say something similar and refer to himself in the third person, you could clearly hear the tongue-in-cheek humor.  And when Sanders would discuss the exploits of "Prime Time," his artfully contrived alter-ego, there was no doubt of Sanders' complete self-awareness.  In Deion's case, it was all about shrewd marketing. 

And when some other athletes use the third person, it's a way to distance themselves from an immediate situation.

But when Walker would say things in the third person -- "Herschel did this" or "Herschel hopes that" -- there was an eerie detachment, like he was having an out-of-body moment. There was always a kind of naiveté in his tone as if the two of you were really discussing someone who wasn't in the room.