Former NFL star Chris Johnson, who announced in June that he has ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, will receive a major honor this coming football season.
The Tennessee Titans, who selected Johnson in the first round of the 2008 NFL draft, announced Friday that they plan to induct the 40-year-old into the franchise's ring of honor at the team's season opener on Sept. 13.
"Chris Johnson holds a special place in the hearts of our organization and our fans," Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said in statement. "His stats speak for themselves, and he will forever remain a leader in our record books, but the man behind the yardage deserves just as much celebration. We look forward to welcoming him home on Sept. 13 and officially inducting him into the Titans Ring of Honor."
Johnson played six seasons with the Titans, scoring 58 total touchdowns in 95 games, according to the team. The three-time Pro Bowl running back racked up 9,651 rushing yards and 55 rushing touchdowns in his NFL career, before retiring in 2017.
In an interview with "Good Morning America" co-anchor Michael Strahan in June, Johnson shared for the first time publicly that he had been diagnosed in 2025 with ALS, short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
"Honestly, I don't know if you ever fully process it," he said of the diagnosis. "At first, you're in shock. Then you realize you have two choices. You can give up, or you can fight. I chose to fight."
ALS is a degenerative neurological disorder that eventually leads to paralysis, taking away a person's ability to move, speak, swallow or even breathe, according to the National Institutes of Health.
There is currently no known cure for ALS, but some treatments may slow down the progression of the disorder and improve the quality of life for patients with ALS. The NIH states that most people with ALS die from respiratory failure, usually within three to five years of symptoms first appearing, though about 1 in 10 people with the condition live 10 years or more.
For Johnson, the disease has progressed so rapidly that he now uses a speech-generating device to speak. Soon after his diagnosis, his voice was recorded, so his speech-generating device delivers a voice that sounds just like his.
Johnson told Strahan in June that he not only wanted to share his story to raise awareness of ALS, but also to let people know that he is still the same person they knew from his NFL days and beyond.
"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."
