Former Titans linebacker Tim Shaw, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2014, was teammates with running back Chris Johnson for three seasons. Johnson revealed on Good Morning America on Monday that he, too, has ALS.
Johnson now communicates with a speed-generating machine.
“I’ve got to brag on him,” Shaw told Paul Kuharsky of paulkuharsky.com by text. “He’s actually injected some hope in me. I’ve been in this fight for 12 years. Like anything else, you get into your routines and beliefs. His great attitude and excitement about treatments have shaken me out of survival mode, and I actually got a couple of treatments two weeks ago, and I’ve joined two clinical trials. So I don’t know if I’ve done anything for him, but he’s done a lot for me.”
Johnson joins Shaw, Steve Gleason, Tim Green and OJ Brigance as former NFL players pushing for ALS research and awareness.
“I’m very proud of CJ,” Shaw said. “Telling the world is super tough, especially when you’re a private person. Chris and I have been talking for a while. He’s got such a great attitude. He’s got all the motivation of his family, and he has faith in God for his future. So he’s crushing it.”
In 2021, a study of all “19,423 NFL athletes who debuted between 1960 and 2019 and played one or more professional game” resulted in a finding that the risks of developing ALS “were nearly four times as high as those of the general population.”
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