Chris Johnson reveals ALS diagnosis in Good Morning America interview

Chris Johnson said he has ALS, telling ABC News co-anchor Michael Strahan in a pre-taped interview that aired Monday on Good Morning America that doctors diagnosed him last year, when he was 39. Johnson, now 40, said he has been using a computer to help speak.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative illness with no cure. Johnson said doctors believe he has sporadic ALS, the most common form of the disease, and that there is no family history of ALS in his family. That detail places his case in the large share of ALS diagnoses that arise without an inherited pattern.

Johnson enters that fight with one of the most recognizable résumés in recent NFL history. The former Tennessee Titans and Arizona Cardinals running back was a three-time Pro Bowl selection, won NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 2009, and still holds the league record for most all-purpose yards in a single season. Arizona listed Johnson as having finished his 10-year NFL career with three seasons in Cardinal red.

His disclosure also underscores the practical demands that follow a degenerative diagnosis: communication support now, and much longer planning as the disease advances. Johnson’s use of a computer to speak is a visible sign of how ALS reshapes daily life, even before the illness reaches its most severe stages.

For retired players, that reality arrives after the spotlight has moved on. Johnson’s case keeps attention on a disease that can affect speech, movement and independence while offering no cure, and it does so with the added weight of a former star who was still young enough, at 39, to be living far from the end of his public life.