Former NFL star Chris Johnson appeared on "Good Morning America" on Monday morning, revealing that he has been diagnosed with ALS.
ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It ultimately impacts all bodily function and typically results in death just years after diagnosis. Johnson says he was diagnosed last year at 39 years old, after noticing some common first symptoms.
“It’s continued to progress much faster than I ever imagined. I want people to understand just how quickly ALS can attack your body,” Johnson, who once rushed for more than 2,000 yards in a season, said. “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.”
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Johnson made the announcement during a special interview with Michael Strahan, the former NFL star turned TV personality.
Former Sports Illustrated writer and author Jeff Pearlman is disgusted by the coverage of Johnson and his diagnosis, though. Pearlman found it "grotesque" that there was no mention of the link between ALS and football during Strahan's interview on ABC.
“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. “The number of times Michael Strahan, a former football player, asks Chris Johnson about this? Zero. The number of times Good Morning America brings this up? Zero. It is so (expletive) 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 He has seen fellow players suffer from ALS because they played football. And you are so (expletive) soulless, and you are so corporately owned that you will not bring it up.”
Pearlman is furious with the media coverage of Johnson's diagnosis
Pearlman is "disgusted" by it all.
“Chris Johnson is dying and he showed up on Good Morning America to tell his story, and Michael Strahan, one of the great cowards on TV in my opinion, sits there and pretends, oh, this is heartbreaking, it’s so sad, I can’t believe this is happening to you, and doesn’t have the courage and the decency and the wherewithal to mention the ties between football and ALS,” said Pearlman. “And that’s because he’s getting paid a (expletive) of money not to. It’s (expletive) disgusting.”
Johnson, now 40, has no history of ALS in his family.
“There’s no history of ALS in my family,” Johnson, who had to use a special device to speak, told Strahan. “My doctors believe my case is what’s called sporadic ALS, which is actually how the vast majority of ALS cases happen.”
