Former Chiefs Star Larry Johnson Describes Memory Loss and Fears for His Brain

Larry Johnson, a former Kansas City Chiefs running back, says he can barely remember his football career, and he fears the game damaged his brain. In an interview published Oct. 31, 2026, The Guardian reported that the 46-year-old has long suspected he has chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head.

Johnson told the paper he remembers things only up to about 2006 or 2007. He says he does not really remember the years before that, or about three years after.

His playing days were a dramatic ride. The Chiefs picked him 27th overall in the 2003 NFL draft, the yearly event where teams choose college players, as backup for star back Priest Holmes. When Holmes suffered a neck injury that ended his 2005 season, Johnson ran for 1,750 yards and 20 touchdowns over nine weeks. He topped 1,700 rushing yards in both 2005 and 2006. He retired in 2011 after seven seasons, and The Guardian describes him as one of the league's most punishing runners.

Johnson has talked about his symptoms for years. In a 2017 interview with The Washington Post, he said he believed he had CTE. He described mood swings, memory lapses, headaches, and violent and self-destructive impulses. He has also spoken about anxiety and paranoia. Earlier this fall, Yahoo Sports reported that he had discussed memory problems publicly. In the Guardian interview, he talks about memory loss, intrusive thoughts and a deep fear of what football did to his brain.

CTE is hard to pin down while someone is alive. Doctors can confirm it only after death, through an examination of the brain. Research on former players has produced striking numbers. A study cited in the Guardian piece found that 74.5% of former NFL players who died between 2008 and 2023 had CTE. Among nearly 400 former players whose brains were donated for postmortem examination, 93.5% showed evidence of the disease.

Johnson's account is one man's story. It does put a human face on a problem the sport has been wrestling with for more than a decade. For fans who remember Johnson's bruising runs through the line, his words land differently now. The Chiefs' running back from the 2005 season is now living with a brain that he says no longer holds much of that year.