For a decade, former Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson outran NFL defenses, racking up six 1,000-yard seasons and leading the league with 2,006 yards in 2009. However, the three-time Pro Bowler revealed in June that he has been fighting a battle against ALS. In a moving letter to his four children, Johnson opened up about how the disease has reshaped his life.
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“Dear Honey Buns, CJ, Caden, and Lee…Y’all kids have seen the YouTube highlights, so y’all know full well, for most of my life, my body was my career. My speed was what people knew me for. I grew up in my grandmother’s house in Mercy Drive, here in Orlando. It was me, my parents, my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my three older brothers, and two older cousins, all under one roof. You’ve heard all the crazy stories by now, so you know what it was: loud, competitive, and just a whole lotta love,” wrote Chris Johnson in a letter on The Players Tribune.
“How can a man just be perfectly healthy one day, running around with his kids in the yard, and then the next, your hand starts getting weak, and it just travels throughout your whole body until you can’t talk anymore?”
Chris Johnson sent a personal message in a letter to his four children after his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis, which destroys the neurons that control voluntary muscles.
“Almost every part of my life has changed at this point. You guys see it every day. But there are plenty of things that are still the same, and staying focused on those things is what keeps me grounded. What hasn’t changed is who I am. I’m still a husband. I’m still Dad. I still love y’all more than you could ever imagine. And I’m still that same dude y’all grown up with. You still see me out there on the back porch every evening, chilling by the pool like normal. ALS has forced me to realize that who I am is so much bigger than what my body can do. My value is in the man that I am, the person I wake up and choose to be every day.”
The running back’s words showed the rapid progression he has experienced since being diagnosed with ALS. He revealed in June 2026 that he had been diagnosed the previous year and that the disease had continued to the point where he uses his eyes to operate a speech-generating device.
The letter is profoundly moving given Johnson’s football career, which was built around his extraordinary physical strengths. He was drafted by the Titans in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft and finished his career with 9,651 rushing yards and 55 touchdowns across ten years.
“When you run the football, I think C.J. (Chris Johnson) set the individual franchise record today for rushing yards. When you run the football, you get turnovers and do those kinds of things, good things happen,” said former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher in 2009.
In 2009, Chris Johnson delivered one of the most electric seasons in football history. He blazed his way to 2,006 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, taking home AP Offensive Player of the Year honors and cementing his legacy as one of the rare few to ever reach the 2,000-yard milestone.
His 2,006 yards ranked as the league’s highest rushing yards total in 2009 and remains the second-highest single-season rushing record in Titans franchise history, surpassed only by Derrick Henry’s 2,027 yards in 2020.
But ALS has taken away the abilities that once defined his life.
“The hardest part is just watching little pieces of him be torn away and just trying to imagine exactly what it is that he’s feeling. And then immediately after that, it’s the kids,” Brittany said of their 8-year-old daughter Honey and 14-year-old twin boys Kaden and Chris Jr.
C.J. could once pick up his young daughter, but can no longer do so. He cannot walk, struggles to keep his head upright, and needs assistance with eating. His wife, Brittany, and family had to adapt to a reality in which his physical participation is limited.
Yet Johnson has focused on the fact that ALS has not changed the person he is. His fight is about preserving his connection with his loved ones, ensuring that his children continue to see the same devoted father beneath the physical alterations the disease has forced upon him.