Is ex-NFL player Walter Thurmond secret softball superstar Dick Mahoney?

This is a weird one.

Former NFL cornerback Walter Thurmond, who announced his retirement at age 28 only a few weeks ago, might have been playing on a local softball team in Philadelphia under the alias "Dick Mahoney."

Philadelphia sports blog Crossing Broad has compiled the evidence, the key pieces of which we will run down below.

Crossing Broad obtained an email, supposedly from a friend of a friend of someone named Dick Mahoney who played softball and was very good.

Mahoney, who is described in the email as looking "like Eazy-E circa 1988: black dude with a Jheri curl hairstyle, LA Dodgers shirt and hat," supposedly hit seven home runs in his first two softball games.

Mahoney apparently kept to himself and told his softball teammates he did "a little bit of this, a little bit of that" for a living.

After Mahoney was spotted driving a Porsche Cayenne, rumors spread that he made his money in drugs or porn.

Mahoney then abruptly left the team to move to Los Angeles to pursue a filmmaking career. Thurmond has said he has a passion for film and is working on a documentary.

Perhaps the best evidence is this photo, posted to Thurmond's girlfriend's Instagram account, that shows someone identified as Dick Mahoney who looks an awful lot like Thurmond wearing a wig at a softball diamond:

So, are the rumors true?

Eagles reporter Les Bowen reached out to Thurmond, who he describes as Mahoney's agent, and seemed to get confirmation:

It sounds like there's a big-time slugger available for hire for L.A.-based softball teams.