The “Good Morning America” co-host interviewed the former NFL star about Johnson’s ALS diagnosis last month
Credit: Heidi Gutman/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. via Getty; Wesley Hitt/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Michael Strahan is defending his interview with Chris Johnson
- The GMA co-host, who interviewed the former NFL player last month, responded to criticism on The Dan Patrick Show
- Strahan did not ask Johnson about whether the latter felt playing football contributed to his diagnosis of ALS
Michael Strahan is speaking out about the backlash that followed his interview with Chris Johnson.
In a guest spot on The Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday, July 28, the Good Morning America co-host addressed the criticism he received for not asking the former NFL star whether he believed that playing in the NFL was the cause of his ALS diagnosis.
“Well, I had that — I actually thought about that, because I saw what every[one said], ‘Well you should have asked this, you should have asked that,’ ” Strahan, 54, said. “Well, you should have got the interview. How about that? That’s one thing.”
Strahan added that he believed that the interview was “Chris’s moment,” and that he didn’t want to take away from the message the former Tennessee Titans running back was hoping to share.
Credit: ABC
“Two,” Strahan told Patrick, “two, that was Chris’s moment for Chris to share the story which Chris wanted to share. And when I got the call that Chris wanted to share that he has, you know, ALS, that was the story. It wasn’t for me to try to grandstand, which — I hate when people do this, Dan.”
He added, “As an interviewer, our job is [to] deliver information. I’m not trying to get a bigger name for myself by putting somebody else in an uncomfortable position. I was there as a service to Chris, for what Chris wanted people to understand and know about his life and where he was now. I was not there to make a story about myself or to get a big headline — that’s what it wasn’t about. The headlines were about Chris, where they needed to be.”
Follow your favorite athletes on and off the field with PEOPLE’s free sports newsletter — sign up now!
A new study found that NFL players have a four-times-higher risk of death due to neurodegenerative disease, which includes ALS, than the regular population.
“I did ask Chris about football, how the NFL has been supportive and all those things,” Strahan said. “He has twin boys who play football right now. So there are so many things that people don’t know but a few were critical of, but overall I’m very proud of what we did there at ABC in bringing that story.”
Johnson and his wife, Brittany, appeared on GMA in an interview that aired on June 29.
“I want people to know that I’m still me,” he told Strahan. “ALS has changed what my body can do, but it hasn’t changed who I am.”
Known as CJ2K in his playing days, Johnson was diagnosed with ALS in 2025 at age 39, after first noticing weakness in his right hand. At the time, he was in the prime of his life, exercising daily and spending time with the four children he shares with Brittany.
Looking back, Strahan said he is “very proud and very happy that Chris trusted” GMA to tell his story.
“Because that was Chris’s story to tell. The headline’s about Chris Johnson, not about Michael Strahan. I don’t make any of these things about myself. And that was the disappointing thing for a few people who were critical of that. But if you don’t have critics that means you’re not doing a good job, too.”
Read the full article here
