---
title: "Chris Johnson, the NFL's 'CJ2K,' reveals he has ALS"
description: "Chris Johnson, one of the most electrifying running backs of his generation, has revealed that he has been diagnosed with ALS, the incurable neurodegenerative disease. The former Tennessee Titans star shared the news on television, saying the illness has changed his body but not his resolve."
category: "Sports"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/sports
author: "Daniel Morales"
published: 2026-06-29T13:04:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-29T13:04:00.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/chris-johnson-als-diagnosis
tags: ["nfl", "chris-johnson", "als", "tennessee-titans", "health"]
---
# Chris Johnson, the NFL's 'CJ2K,' reveals he has ALS

Chris Johnson, one of the most electrifying running backs of his generation, has revealed that he has been diagnosed with ALS, the incurable neurodegenerative disease. The former Tennessee Titans star shared the news on television, saying the illness has changed his body but not his resolve.

Chris Johnson, the former Tennessee Titans running back whose breakaway speed made him one of the NFL's most exciting players, has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he revealed on Monday during an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America," [the Titans confirmed](https://www.tennesseetitans.com/news/former-titans-rb-chris-johnson-reveals-als-diagnosis).

## The diagnosis

Johnson, 40, said in the interview, conducted by the former NFL star Michael Strahan, that he was diagnosed last year after first noticing weakness in his right hand. The disease has progressed quickly: he now speaks with the help of a speech-generating device set to a recording of his own voice. Doctors believe his is a case of sporadic ALS — the most common form, which occurs without any family history of the disease, [as ABC News reported](https://abcnews.com/GMA/Culture/former-nfl-star-chris-johnson-reveals-als-diagnosis/story?id=134255671). Johnson said he intends to fight, and that he is taking part in a clinical trial.

## A dazzling career

For a stretch around the turn of the 2010s, few players were more thrilling to watch. Drafted by the Titans in the first round in 2008, Johnson earned the nickname "CJ2K" in 2009, when he rushed for 2,006 yards — one of only a handful of players ever to top 2,000 in a season — and set a single-season record with 2,509 yards from scrimmage. He was named the Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year and made the Pro Bowl three times. He played for the Titans through 2013 before later spells with other teams.

## What ALS is

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease after the baseball great who brought it to public attention in 1939, is a progressive condition that destroys the nerve cells controlling the body's muscles, leading to weakness and, eventually, paralysis. There is no cure, though research and clinical trials aim to slow its course.

## Football and the questions it raises

Johnson joins a sobering list of former players to have been diagnosed with ALS, among them the former New Orleans Saints safety Steve Gleason, who has become a leading advocate and founded a foundation to support patients and fund research. Scientists have studied whether the repeated head impacts of football raise the risk of neurodegenerative disease; research has found elevated rates of such conditions among former players, [as the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has noted](https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/assessing-football-players-health-beyond-neurodegenerative-disease/), though experts stress that a definitive causal link to ALS specifically has not been established.

For now, Johnson said, his focus is on his family, on raising awareness, and on the fight ahead — the kind of challenge that, unlike the defenders he once left grasping at air, cannot simply be outrun.