Former All-Pro running back Arian Foster shared a powerful story about Tennessee Titans legend Chris Johnson on his Barstool Network podcast “Macrodosing,” connecting the two rushing champs through a single Monday Night Football game in 2009. 

The internet continues to bless us with phenomenal throwback stories now as Johnson battles ALS after being diagnosed at 39 years old, sparking a revival of awareness and fundraising efforts across the NFL and sports community.

Foster and Johnson took completely opposite paths to NFL stardom. Foster was the big-time high school recruit who went to the University of Tennessee, where I had watched him have a standout SEC career, only to go undrafted into the league after a tough senior season. 

CJ was a 2-star recruit and track and field star out of the Orlando area who landed at East Carolina, and played (and ran) his way into the first round of the NFL Draft going 24th overall to the Titans in 2008.

Within three years of Johnson getting drafted, BOTH led the NFL in rushing while playing in the same division. The timing is pretty crazy.

Foster’s first NFL game was a CJ2K classic

On “Macrodosing,” Foster told the story of his first NFL game on the active roster during his undrafted rookie year with the Houston Texans. It was a Monday Night Football matchup against the Titans during Johnson’s historic 2,000-yard rushing season. 

“I was on a podcast with him like two, three years ago,” Foster shared. “I had told him that, like, he inspired the shit out of me… that was my first game that I actually got brought up to the active roster. I’m watching, that year he’s the best doing it. That’s when he got 2000 yards, and so as a practice squad (player), just watching who’s nice, just surveying the league, it was just so it was very inspiring watching him do what he did.”

Foster had a front-row seat to watch Johnson rip off 151 yards on 29 carries. Johnson didn’t reach the end zone that night, but Tennessee found a way to win 20-17 on a Rob Boronas field goal, pushing the Titans to 4-6 after their 0-6 start.

Foster’s stat line that night? Zero carries. Zero yards. Zero everything.

“The fact that that was my first game, I told him, that’s inspiring, seeing you run all over the squad, that shit was inspiring. I told him ‘we got one too’ in my mind,” Foster told Johnson of his own expectations. “I got a chance to tell him that.”

That 2009 season, Foster played in six total games and managed 257 yards with three touchdowns. 

Meanwhile, Johnson posted over 2,500 yards from scrimmage, an NFL record that still stands today, and became the sixth player in NFL history to crack the 2,000-yard rushing mark.

The very next season, Foster exploded. 

The Texans running back played all 16 games, carried the ball 327 times, rushed for over 1,600 yards, and scored 16 touchdowns. He led the NFL in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in 2010, the year after watching Johnson dominate from the sideline.

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Arian Foster is still inspired by Chris Johnson’s battle with ALS 

Johnson now finds himself inspiring people in an entirely different way through the Ice Bucket Challenge revival and the broader push for ALS research and awareness. The ALS community, the NFL community, and sports fans beyond football have rallied around Johnson’s fight to raise funds and find a cure.

“It’s sad, man. Keep fighting, dog. He’s still inspiring. He chose to keep fighting like that, because once you get diagnosed with something like that, it’s like there is no cure, you know? And it’s just the only thing you do is just continue to fight and try to hold on, that shit sucks, though.”

These are the types of player-to-player moments we rarely get to see. Two guys who took wildly different routes to the same destination, connected by a single game on a Monday night.