Chris Johnson wants the Ice Bucket Challenge back, and he is leading the call
Days after sharing his ALS diagnosis, the Titans' 'CJ2K' is turning his fight into a cause and asking the football world to douse itself with ice water again.
Chris Johnson has decided to do something with all of it: the outpouring, the messages, the attention that arrived after he told the world he is living with ALS. Rather than let that momentum fade, the former Tennessee Titans running back known as 'CJ2K' is asking people to bring back the Ice Bucket Challenge, the ice-water phenomenon that swept the country in the summer of 2014 and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the fight against the same disease he is now facing. This is the next chapter after the diagnosis he shared with us just days ago, and it is a purposeful one. Johnson wants the awareness, and he wants the research it can fund.
What is Chris Johnson asking people to do?
Johnson is calling on the public and the wider NFL community to revive the Ice Bucket Challenge and use it to raise awareness for ALS. To get it moving, he put out direct challenges to people he knows, nominating former running back Marshawn Lynch along with ex-Titans teammates LenDale White and Adam 'Pacman' Jones to take part. It is the familiar formula that made the campaign work the first time: get doused, post the video, and pass the challenge along to someone else. In doing so, Johnson is taking the support that came his way and pointing it outward, toward a cause bigger than any one person. 'The support you've shown me over the last few days has meant more than I can put into words,' he said. He added that 'the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge united millions of people,' and he clearly hopes it can do so again.
What did the original 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge accomplish?
The Ice Bucket Challenge became one of the defining viral moments of the last decade. Through the summer of 2014, people across the country filmed themselves being drenched with ice water, then nominated friends, family, and famous faces to do the same or donate. What looked like a lighthearted dare turned into a genuine fundraising wave. According to the ALS Therapy Development Institute, the campaign generated roughly $135 million in donations within the United States and about $220 million worldwide to fight ALS. That money helped fund research into a disease that had long struggled for attention and dollars. Johnson is betting that lightning can strike twice, and that a new generation can rediscover what made the original so powerful.
How is Chris Johnson framing his own fight?
Johnson, who is 39, was diagnosed with ALS last year and now communicates with a speech-generating device built from recordings of his own voice. As he told us when he first went public, his is a case of sporadic ALS, which he has been careful to note is how the vast majority of cases occur. His point is a plain and important one: this disease can happen to someone who never expected it. When Johnson shared his diagnosis, he described his outlook as a choice, and he chose to fight. This campaign is what that fight looks like when it turns outward. Instead of dwelling only on his own condition, he is using his voice, and the platform his career gave him, to try to move the whole conversation forward.
Sources
- ESPN: Chris Johnson seeks Ice Bucket Challenge revival amid ALS diagnosis
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