After being diagnosed with ALS, Chris Johnson writes a letter to his children. What it states – Chris Johnson has lost nearly everything due to ALS. However, he writes that his children give him the willpower to persevere.
On Thursday, September 10, Johnson, a legendary member of the Tennessee Titans, sent an open letter to his kids through the Players’ Tribune. Johnson detailed his experience from the first signs of the motor neuron illness to his current situation eighteen months later in the letter.
On a road trip in March 2025, the former Titans running back described how his first concerning symptoms appeared: a water bottle felt weighty. After then, Johnson described how he saw several doctors before receiving a potential ALS diagnosis and described his and his wife’s anxiety over the unclear future.
Johnson was unable to talk by the time he joined fellow former NFL player Michael Strahan on “Good Morning America” in June of this year to make his ALS fight public.By now, almost every aspect of my existence has changed,” Johnson wrote. “Every day, you guys witness it. However, there are a lot of things that haven’t changed, and I stay grounded by concentrating on those things. My identity hasn’t altered.I’ve been forced by ALS to acknowledge that my identity is far greater than what my body is capable of. The man I am, the person I choose to be every day when I get up, is what makes me valuable.
Johnson continued by encouraging his four children to create their own “football journey” and leaving a message for each of them. He stressed the value of staying together as a family and said he hoped to live long enough to witness his children achieve significant life milestones like graduation, marriage, and establishing their own families.
In closing, the former NFL running back and 40-yard dash record holder expressed gratitude to his kids for being able to act normally in spite of Johnson’s hardships.It’s absurd,” Johnson wrote, “because I swear it’s like you don’t even notice ALS, I can ignore everything else that’s happening on in those little moments.
Chris Johnson’s diagnosis of ALS
In 2025, Johnson received his first ALS diagnosis. In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” on June 29, 2026, Johnson disclosed that he had been diagnosed with ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The illness had advanced so quickly that he was unable to communicate with interviewer Michael Strahan without a computer program that used his eyes to operate an AI-generated facsimile of his voice.In the interview, Johnson stated, “I want people to know that I am still me.” “ALS has changed what my body can do, but it hasn’t changed who I am.”It is worthwhile if telling my story encourages more research, helps one person receive a diagnosis sooner, or brings hope to another family.
Johnson publicly offered to revive the popular “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” in order to raise funds for the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital shortly after he revealed his illness. Johnson’s campaign has raised more than $238,000 as of September 10.
Chris Johnson’s statistics
With the Titans:
- 95 games (93 starts)
- 1,742 rushes
- Yards rushed: 7,965
- 4.6 yards per carry
- 50 rushing touchdowns
- 272 receptions
- Yards received: 2,003
- Touchdowns received: 8
- 9,968 yards of total scrimmage
- Yards per touch overall: 4.9
Career statistics:
- 130 games (111 starts)
- 2,163 rushes
- Yards rushed: 9,651
- 4.5 yards per carry
- 55 rushing touchdowns
- 307 receptions
- Yards received: 2,255
- Touchdowns received: 9
- 11,906 yards of total scrimmage
- Yards per touch overall: 4.8
ALS: What is it?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS for short, is sometimes referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease or motor neuron illness.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the United States National Institute of Health (NIH) both state that the degenerative illness “affects motor neurons … the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement and breathing.” Muscle weakness brought on by ALS progressively gets worse. ALS is a fatal illness that progressively affects the muscles required for breathing, eating, and speaking.
Although a cure for ALS is presently unknown, researchers have created therapies that can reduce the disease’s progression. The NIH states that the majority of ALS patients pass away “within 3-to-5 years of symptoms first appearing.” Ten percent of ALS patients live for more than ten years.
A study that was published on July 8 in eClinicalMedicine found that former NFL players have a “pronounced risk of neurodegenerative mortality.” Specifically, the study found that “neurodegenerative mortality was nearly four times higher in NFL players compared to the general population.”
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