Chris Johnson turned 41 on Wednesday with a birthday update no athlete wants to deliver: the former Tennessee Titans star says ALS has stripped away much of his independence, even as his mind remains fully sharp.
Speaking from a wheelchair and using a speech-generating tablet controlled by his eyes, Johnson described the daily reality of the disease in plain terms. “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.”
For Johnson, the hardest part has been watching his body fail while everything else stays the same. He said the mental toll has been especially brutal.
“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.”
Johnson was diagnosed with ALS in 2025 and revealed the news to ABC earlier this year. His condition has progressed enough that the Tennessee Titans postponed his Ring of Honor ceremony, which had been scheduled for Week 1 in Nashville.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is tied to the degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. The disease has not been definitively linked to football or head trauma, though the Concussion and CTE Foundation said in July that it had identified 10 NFL players under 50 who died from ALS since 1960.
Co-author Dr. Daniel Daneshvar said the findings point to a troubling pattern.
“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.”
Johnson said doctors have discussed football during the process because of how long he played, but no one has told him the sport caused the illness.
“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.”
Even so, he has not kept his sons away from the game. His thinking has changed, though, and he wants them to understand the risks.
“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.”
Johnson’s outlook is grounded in his family, including wife Brittany and their four children. He said the disease affects all of them.
“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.”
Brittany now acts as his primary caregiver, a role she described as her “calling.”
Johnson now uses a CPAP machine to help him breathe and needs to be fed and changed by loved ones. The former running back, once known as the fastest player in the NFL, said he still believes a breakthrough is coming.
The good news, according to renowned neurologist Dr. Merit Cudkowicz, is that treatment has slowed Johnson's disease.
“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.”
Johnson’s NFL resume remains enormous. He surpassed 2,000 rushing yards in 2009 and finished with 9,651 career rushing yards. He also added 2,255 receiving yards for 11,923 total yards from scrimmage, which ranks 113th all time.
His workload was just as staggering: Johnson’s 2,470 touches rank 38th in NFL history, underscoring how often defenses had to deal with him over a decade-long career.
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