When Former NFL running back Chris Johnson did an interview with “Good Morning America” anchor Michael Strahan, nobody thought it would turn into an online feud. During the interview, Johnson revealed how he was diagnosed with ALS without any family history. However, soon after his revelation, sportswriter Jeff Pearlman expressed his frustration over Michael Strahan and the GMA’s lack of conversation over the connection between football and ALS.

“We know by now through studies that there is a correlation between playing football and ALS. A much higher percentage of people who play football, specifically in the NFL, wind up with ALS than the general population. It is a known thing,” Pearlman said in his TikTok video. “The number of times Michael Strahan, a former football player, asks Chris Johnson about this? Zero. The number of times Good Morning America brought this up? Zero. It is so f*cking irresponsible and grotesque.

Michael Strahan, who’s paid by the NFL, Michael Strahan, who makes his money commenting on NFL games, doesn’t bring it up. He knows the tie between football and ALS. He has seen fellow players suffer from ALS because they played football. And you are so f*cking soulless, and you are so corporately owned that you will not bring it up.”

Pearlman’s reaction came right after Johnson’s revelation. According to Pearlman, Strahan, who is well aware of the risks associated with ALS, still didn’t participate in the conversation. The NFL author also said that he is not asking people to stop playing football. He just wants the media to talk more openly about safety, risks, and research.

During his conversation with Johnson and his wife, while Strahan did ask the couple about his ALS journey, what the doctors had to say, and more, Pearlman still feels that it just wasn’t enough on the former NFL player’s part.

For context, in 2025, Johnson was diagnosed with ALS without any family history, which is called sporadic ALS. He said that he noticed the signs when he first felt weakness in his right hand. In Johnson’s case, the disease has progressed so rapidly that he can’t even speak on his own and instead relies on his eyes to trigger a speech-generating device to speak.

“There’s no history of ALS in my family,” said Johnson, using a speech-generating device to speak. “My doctors believe my case is what’s called sporadic ALS, which is actually how the vast majority of ALS cases happen. That’s one of the reasons this disease can be so shocking. It can happen to someone who never expected it.”

At first, Johnson’s wife, Brittany, mentioned connecting the symptoms to his football career and not ALS, “I thought because of football and, you know, his career, that it had to be something with that,” his wife, Brittany, told Strahan. “Maybe … a pinched nerve or something along those lines, but never ALS.”

A study from Boston University CTE Centre in 2021 found that people who play pro football are about four times more likely to get ALS and die from it compared to other adult men. The researchers could not clearly say the exact reason why this happens. But they think it may be linked to repeated head hits and brain injuries that happen during football, like concussions and long-term brain stress.

Chris Johnson, who played in the NFL for 10 seasons from 2008 to 2017 and spent the first six years with the Tennessee Titans, followed by one year with the New York Jets and three seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. Johnson initially retired in 2018 and later signed a one-day contract with the Tennessee Titans to retire as a Titans player on April 24, 2019.

“I want people to know that I’m still me. ALS has changed what my body can do, but it hasn’t changed who I am,” he said. “People sometimes look at the physical disability and assume you’re not still the same person inside. I still think the same. I still dream. I still love my family. My body just doesn’t cooperate.”

They did not say football directly causes ALS. They only found a strong connection that needs more study. Something that Pearlman was trying to point at.