Chris Johnson announced Monday morning on Good Morning America that he has been diagnosed with ALS, a diagnosis that came over a year ago when the former Tennessee Titans running back was 39 years old. 

The man who became the sixth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season now communicates through a speech generation machine that uses AI and his own recorded voice, controlled by his eyes. 

His message was simple and gutting: he is still himself inside, but his body is no longer cooperating.

The image of CJ2K on GMA is stunning and difficult to process, which I, personally, am still working through. 

One of the greatest athletes of his generation, the player we all remember running down the sideline away from every supreme athlete on an NFL field, hearing Mike Keith’s “Touchdown, Titans!” call, watching Johnson break into his famous celebration. 

That celebration, the Choppa City Juke, became as iconic as the runs that preceded it. And the story of how it started is worth revisiting right now.

The origin of the Choppa City Juke with CJ2k

We take it back to Johnson’s hometown of Orlando, Florida. As the story goes, an Orlando rapper, known as Popeye, attended a pool party where Johnson was hanging out during the offseason. The young rapper did a dance at the party, and Johnson recognized it immediately as his future touchdown celebration. 

“It’s our Orlando dance, it was a kid by the name, they called him Popeye,” Johnson shared on a 2024 podcast with Antonio Brown. “He used to do this dance all the time, right. What happened was, in the offseason, we was (in Orlando), we had a pool party, and he came to the pool party, he did a dance. I’m like, man, you know, I need a signature dance. I start going crazy (on the field). I used to do it after every touchdown.”

Then his second NFL season arrived in 2009, and Johnson started going off. That record-breaking 2,500-yard scrimmage season, those 16 total touchdowns that year, and the Choppa City Juke TD celebration was born.

One of the funnier layers of the Choppa City Juke story involves Jacoby Jones, then with the Baltimore Ravens. Jones was a dynamic playmaker as a return man and receiver, a “real dancer” who appeared on Dancing with the Stars. 

“Then when Jacoby seen it, Jacoby started doing it. So now, Jacoby is a real dancer,” Johnson said. “He went, and goin’ overboard.”

“Now I’m at the house like ‘boy, I gotta some extra on this. Gotta put some sauce on this thang’,” a smiling Johnson recalled. 

“Man, we used to call each other after every game ‘boy I just seen you went crazy, but I finna get in the lab, I got some for you.’ We used to go back and forth like that. But man, I love (Jones) to death.” 

Revisiting that story from CJ2K in this moment carries a weight that’s hard to fully describe. Jones passed away tragically two years ago from natural causes in his sleep at age 40. 

Now you watch Johnson tell the story of their Choppa City Juke battles, with Jones no longer with us, and Johnson’s body is no longer working with him. 

Trapped inside his failing body is HIS mind that stays sharp, which is the ultimate cruelty of ALS. 

“I’m still me.” Johnson told Michael Strahan on Good Morning America.

The irony of two guys who spent their careers scoring touchdowns and having fun, neither able to do so anymore, is as painful as it is piercing.

CJ did it his way, against the advice

Johnson always brought fun and personality to the game. The smile, the gold in his mouth. 

I saw a video circulating Monday with Chad Ochocinco where Johnson said that at his pro day coming out of East Carolina, an NFL scout told him that if he wanted to last in the league, he needed to change his image, cut his dreads, take the golds out of his mouth. 

Johnson said he wanted to do it his way. And he did. The Choppa City Juke was part of that identity.

The 2026 NFL season can honor CJ2K the right way

Here’s one thing I feel very strongly about: in the 2026 NFL season, the Choppa City Juke is making a comeback.

Think about the current generation of NFL players. If you’re 26 years old in the league right now, you were born in 2000. You were ages nine through 13 when Johnson started doing the Choppa City Juke for the Titans across those five seasons. You picked up that dance. You did it in the backyard. You did it in your middle school games or your high school games and got penalized for it. You did it in your living room pretending to be an NFL player scoring a touchdown.

Those guys are going to bring that back after seeing what Johnson is going through. I cannot wait for it. It’s going to be a good, fun way for NFL players across the league to honor a man who can no longer do his Choppa City Juke himself.

When Chris Johnson is watching NFL football this fall, he’ll be smiling. And we’ll all remember that face, smiling with his golds. 

How it should be.

Donations to raise money for ALS research in Chris Johnson’s honor can be made on his official campaign.