Once the NFL's most punishing runner, Larry Johnson now struggles to recall his own career and is speaking out about football's hidden toll.
Larry Johnson used to be the running back nobody wanted to see across the line. At his peak with the Kansas City Chiefs, he flattened defenders and left opposing coaches sweating on every snap. Now the man who made a career of delivering punishment is dealing with what that career left behind.
Johnson, 46, still looks fit and formidable, but the sharpness has gone from his memory. He walked away from pro football in 2011 after seven seasons and an All-Pro run in Kansas City. Today, he says, his recall of those years is patchy at best. He can place himself up to around 2006 and 2007. Anything before that window, and roughly three years after it, is largely a blank.
He has also opened up about intrusive thoughts and a growing fear about the long-term damage football may have done to his brain. It is a stark picture for a player whose highlights once defined a generation of NFL running backs, and who now can barely revisit them.
Johnson's story adds to the conversation about player health that stretches well beyond the NFL. Fans of contact sports everywhere, from the gridiron to the rugby pitch to the football field, are asking harder questions about how long careers should be played and what care athletes deserve once the cheering stops. For Johnson, the glory is real. So is the price.
