Chris Johnson is still looking for answers, and he’s not pretending to have them.
The former Tennessee Titans star, known to fans as “CJ2K” after his 2,006-yard season in 2009, revealed this summer that he has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS. Since then, one of the biggest questions hanging over his story has been whether football played any role in the disease.
Johnson addressed that directly in a recent conversation with PEOPLE, speaking through a speech-generating tablet device he controls with his eyes.
“Football has come up throughout this process when we’ve talked with doctors because I played the game basically my whole life,” he told PEOPLE, using a speech-generating tablet device that he controls with his eyes. “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.”
That uncertainty is part of what makes ALS such a devastating diagnosis. Johnson said the question naturally lingers because of the years he spent absorbing contact on the field.
“When you spend that many years taking hits and putting your body through what we put our bodies through,” he adds, “of course you think about it.”
Still, Johnson isn’t rushing to pin blame on the sport he played his whole life. He said his children play football, and what matters most to him is that they are “happy and healthy” and able to build lives they love.
“I don’t think it would be right for me to say, ‘Football caused my ALS,’ because I don’t know that, but I also don’t think you can ignore the question,” he says. “I think the possible connection between football, repeated trauma and neurological diseases needs to continue to be studied so players and their families can have better answers.”
Johnson’s public goal in speaking out is bigger than his own story. He wants attention on ALS itself and on the need for more research into how it develops.
The disease has no known specific cause and no cure, and factors such as genetics, the environment and lifestyle may all play a role. When ALS does strike, it can move quickly.
Most people diagnosed with ALS live 3-5 years. Some survive longer, even up to 10 years, but there is still no cure and only a few treatments available.
Johnson’s diagnosis also meant a painful change in plans for the Titans. During Tennessee’s Week 1 game against the New York Jets, he was supposed to be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor, but his health prevented him from traveling to Nashville. The induction was postponed and has not yet been rescheduled.
His story has already struck a chord in Nashville, where he remains one of the most beloved players in franchise history.
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