Chris Johnson Weighs Possible Football Link to ALS

Former NFL running back Chris Johnson is confronting the possibility that his football career contributed to his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease with no known cure. Johnson, 40, publicly revealed the diagnosis in June during an appearance on Good Morning America, roughly a year after doctors identified the condition in 2025. In a letter to his four children published in The Players' Tribune on September 10, Johnson wrote that neurologists appear to react knowingly when he mentions his playing career. He said he has visited nearly every major ALS clinic in the country, and that in his experience, mentioning football prompts an almost immediate understanding from doctors. Johnson cited a study he said found former NFL players were nearly four times as likely to develop and die from ALS compared with the overall US male population. He was careful to stress the limits of that evidence, writing that he is not an expert, that it is only one study, and that other environmental factors could be at play. Anyone can get ALS, he noted, but he cannot help wondering whether there is a connection between his career and his condition.