Former Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson dropped a bomb on the entire NFL this summer when he announced he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He earned the nickname "CJ2K" during his 2009 season when he rushed for 2,006 yards.
During the Titans' Week 1 game against the New York Jets, Johnson was set to be inducted into the team's Ring of Honor. Unfortunately, Johnson's health did not allow him to travel to Nashville for the game, so the induction was postponed and has yet to be rescheduled.
Johnson recently sat down with PEOPLE magazine to discuss his diagnosis and whether football played a role in his contracting this terminal diagnosis.
“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.”
Anytime someone receives a diagnosis of this magnitude, there are always questions around how it happened. Was it genetic? Was it the environment? Was it a sport or activity?
“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.”
But Johnson isn't ready to blame the game he played his entire life, either. His kids play football, and he says he just wants them to be "happy and healthy" and that even if it's in the back of his mind, he wants his kids to be able to build a life 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 biggest goal in sharing his diagnosis is to raise awareness not just of the disease, but of how more research needs to be done to learn more about it. Right now, there is no known specific cause of ALS (similar to other neurodegenerative diseases), and there is no cure. Genetic factors could be a cause. Environmental factors could be a cause. Lifestyle could be a cause. No one truly knows how it happens, just that when it does, the progression can be rapid.
Most people who are diagnosed with ALS survive 3-5 years. There have been instances where people have survived longer, up to 10 years even, but there is no cure, and there are few treatments currently available.
At Titans Wire, we will continue to share Johnson's story not just to help him in his effort to raise awareness, but to remind him that he has an entire family in Nashville that supports him. #TitanUp for CJ2K.
This article originally appeared on Titans Wire: Titans' Chris Johnson contemplates football impact on ALS diagnosis
