Chris Johnson is confronting a question that has followed him since his ALS diagnosis: what, if anything, ties the disease to his years in the NFL?
The former Titans running back, now 40, announced this past summer on “Good Morning America” that he has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Since then, Johnson has been speaking more openly about the illness and the uneasy overlap between football and the disease.
In a lengthy piece, Johnson described what it has been like moving through the medical process while carrying his football past with him.
“I’ve seen a lot of neurologists at this point and been to basically every major ALS clinic in the country, and in my experience, as soon as you say you played football it’s like, ‘Ahh, OK.’ Almost like an understanding, you know? I read one study, and from my understanding, it found that former NFL players were nearly four times as likely to develop and pass away from ALS compared with the U.S. male population overall,” Johnson wrote.
He then added, “That was a shock. And to be clear, your dad’s not an expert, and that’s just one study, and there might be other environmental factors at play. Anybody can get ALS,” he continued.
Johnson’s comments come against a backdrop of growing attention to the connection between football and ALS. Reports have said former football players are nearly four times more likely to develop ALS than the rest of the U.S. male population, and also four times more likely to die from it.
The issue drew more public discussion when Johnson appeared on “Good Morning America” and some critics took issue with co-anchor Michael Strahan for not asking him about the football link. Jeff Pearlman of Sports Illustrated wrote at the time, “Chris Johnson is dying and he showed up on Good Morning America to tell his story, and Michael Strahan, one of the great cowards on TV in my opinion, sits there and pretends, oh, this is heartbreaking, it’s so sad, I can’t believe this is happening to you, and doesn’t have the courage and the decency and the wherewithal to mention the ties between football and ALS,”
Johnson played for three NFL teams, with his most memorable stretch coming in Tennessee from 2008 to 2013. Those were also his best years in the league. On the Titans’ season opener against the New York Jets, the team will induct Johnson into its ring of honor during halftime.
ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is a rare and fatal nervous system disease, and there is no known cure. There are treatments that can improve quality of life.
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