Chris Johnson once made his name outrunning entire defenses, a first-round pick whose speed redefined the Tennessee Titans‘ backfield. Now he’s facing an opponent that doesn’t care how fast you are. Diagnosed with ALS last year after noticing weakness in his right hand, Johnson has watched the disease progress rapidly. In a raw new statement, the former Pro Bowler admits what he wants most isn’t recovery.

“At the end of the day, I just want more time with the people I love,” Johnson said to SI’s Matt Verderame.

The former Titans running back went on Good Morning America this past June and told Michael Strahan something he’d been carrying privately for months: he has ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Johnson, now 40, said doctors diagnosed him in 2025, roughly a year before going public.

“Honestly, I don’t know if you ever fully process it,” he told Strahan in June. “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.”

There’s no ALS in his family history, so nothing about it felt inevitable. It started small. His right hand didn’t feel like his own anymore. Johnson described the early signs:

“I first noticed weakness in my right hand,” he said. “At first, it was little things like my grip didn’t feel right and I wasn’t as strong as I’ve always been.” He and his wife, Brittany, chalked it up to a decade of NFL wear and tear at first. They were wrong.”

What followed has been fast, faster than Johnson ever expected. His speech started slipping, and he’s now using a computer paired with a speaker built to sound like his own voice, technology that let him do the GMA interview at all. He put the timeline in painfully human terms.

 “Just over a year ago, I was picking up my 7-year-old daughter so she’d make a wish with her birthday cake. Today, I couldn’t do that.”

Johnson spent 10 seasons in the league, suiting up for the Titans, New York Jets, and Arizona Cardinals before retiring. Football fans know the name CJ2K for a reason. In 2009, Johnson rushed for 2,006 yards, still the seventh-best single season in NFL history, and set the league record for yards from scrimmage with 2,509 that same year. That performance earned him the AP’s NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.

He’s not naive about what a decade of hits might have to do with where he is now.

“It’s hard not to believe football may have played a role,” he said. “At the same time, I loved the game. Football gave me opportunities I never would have had otherwise, and I’m grateful for everything it brought into my life. My hope is that we continue investing in research so future players and families have answers that we don’t have today.”

The Titans haven’t stayed quiet either.

Owner Amy Adams Strunk put out a statement saying Johnson’s “leadership on the field, in addition to his impact in the locker room and Nashville community, has written him permanently into the story of this franchise,” and pledged the organization’s support going forward.

Johnson isn’t the only Titan to know this disease up close. Tim Shaw, his teammate from 2010 to 2012, was diagnosed with ALS back in 2014 at just 30 years old and is still fighting today.

For Johnson, going public was never just about the diagnosis. It was about reminding people he’s still himself underneath it.

That mindset is showing up in action now, too. After watching a video from former Utah basketball player Hunter Mecum, who started a new ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in honor of “CJ2K,” Johnson decided to pay it forward.

He challenged his own circle to grab a bucket, tag three people, and donate to ALS research if they’re able, a challenge he issued in July that Marshawn Lynch was quick to answer.

For a man once known for outrunning everyone on the field, Johnson is now just asking for more time and doing everything he can to make that time count.