NFL great Chris Johnson has given a heartbreaking update on his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) as the former Tennessee Titans star turned 41 on Wednesday.
Interviewed from his wheelchair with the help of a speech-generating tablet controlled by his eyes, Johnson said the disease has robbed him of his physical autonomy, all while keeping his mind intact.
‘ALS has taken away a lot of my independence,’ he told People. ‘As a father, your first instinct is to protect your kids. You don’t want them to be scared or feel like their whole world is changing.’
Asked about the hardest part of his affliction, which he was diagnosed with in 2025 and revealed to ABC earlier this year, Johnson pointed to the mental anguish he’s endured.
‘Having your mind still completely there,’ he said, ‘while your body stops doing things you’ve done your entire life.
‘I still hear everything,’ he continued. ‘I understand everything. I still joke, think, make decisions, get frustrated and want to be included in conversations about my own life. ALS may change what my body can do, but it hasn’t changed who I am at my core.’
Chris Johnson is pictured earlier this year on GMA before he was relegated to a wheelchair
Johnson’s Brittany has said she believes her calling is to take care of the former NFL star
Johnson spoke through the machine with his wife during an ABC interview over the summer
Johnson’s disease progressed so much that the Titans opted to postpone his Ring of Honor ceremony scheduled for Week 1 in Nashville.
Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease for the legendary New York Yankees slugger, ALS involves the degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and along the spinal cord.
The disease has not been definitively linked to football or head trauma. However, the Concussion and CTE Foundation said in July that it has identified 10 NFL players under the age of 50 who have died from ALS since 1960.
The study’s co-author Dr. Daniel Daneshvar said the findings do suggest a connection between football and the disease.
‘ALS deaths among former NFL players, particularly those who die at younger ages, are occurring far more often than could possibly be expected by chance,’ he said. ‘These findings are deeply concerning and underscore the urgent need to understand how repetitive head impacts and motor neuron disease may be connected.’
Like all cases among former football players, Johnson’s ALS has never been directly linked to head trauma from his decades in the game.
One of the most prolific running backs in NFL history, the former Titans star famously surpassed the 2,000-yard plateau in 2009 en route to 9,651 career rushing yards. Throw in another 2,255 receiving yards and Johnson accumulated 11,923 total yards from scrimmage over his decade-long career, which ranks 113th all time.
More troubling: Johnson’s 2,470 touches rank 38th in NFL history, which means he was targeted by more defenses than all but 37 other players.
‘Football has come up throughout this process when we’ve talked with doctors because I played the game basically my whole life,’ Johnson said. ‘That’s a big part of my history. My doctors haven’t told me that football caused my ALS, and they haven’t been able to point to one specific reason why I developed it.’
Johnson has four children. He admits life is not like it was a year ago as he lives with ALS
Johnson told People he remains hopeful for a cure and is thankful for his time with his family
Despite this, Johnson has not stopped his sons from playing football.
‘I don’t look at what I’m going through and say, ‘My kids shouldn’t play because of it,’ Johnson said. ‘But as a father, of course, I think about things differently now. I want them to understand the risks and take care of their bodies. If football’s what they love, and that’s the path they choose, I’m going to support them. More than anything, I want my kids to be healthy, happy and able to build lives they love.’
The good news, according to renowned neurologist Dr. Merit Cudkowicz, is that treatment has slowed Johnson’s disease.
Still, an exact prognosis remains elusive, and in the meantime, Johnson is focused on a family that includes wife Brittany and their four children, all of whom he considers to be victims of the disease.
‘I’m still a husband and a dad,’ Johnson said. ‘ALS doesn’t just affect the person diagnosed—it affects the whole family. Brittany’s life changed too. The kids’ lives changed. There’s no clocking out from it.’
Johnson only retired in 2017 and was previously the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2009
Brittany now serves as Johnson’s primary caregiver, which she described as her ‘calling.’
These days, Johnson needs a CPAP machine to help him breathe and needs to be both fed and changed by loved ones.
The experience has obviously been difficult for a player once considered to be the fastest in the NFL, but he remains optimistic that a cure will be discovered that can help him be there for his family, physically.
‘I don’t know which treatment or discovery is eventually going to change things, but I believe somebody is going to figure this disease out,’ he said. ‘Until then, I’m going to keep fighting to be here for my family. That’s what gives me hope.’
