Green Bay Packers legend Ahman Green has Parkinson’s disease.
The team’s career rushing leader revealed his diagnosis, which he received in January 2025, during a Wednesday, July 29, appearance on the “Go Long” podcast with Tyler Dunne. Prior to Wednesday, he said, only family and close friends knew of his battle.
“I had a little bit of the feet twitching when I’m in my sleep and stuff like that,” Green, 49, said. “I mean, I knew something was going on long before that. I just got a hold of some doctors [and] was able to get in contact with and get the diagnostics, get the testing and finally got it tested.”
He added that he’s noticed other symptoms, calling his short term memory “trash.”
“I’ve got to remind myself of things,” he said. “When I meet somebody for the first time, it’s like a name, I hear that name, then I repeat it. I try to repeat it or write it down. And if I don’t, I’ve got to follow up with them.”
Green played in the NFL from 1998 to 2009, spending most of his career with the Packers, who inducted him into the franchise’s Hall of Fame in 2014. Before turning pro, he also won two national championships at the University of Nebraska.
Though Parkinson’s is not curable, Green said he has done what he can to treat his symptoms, including focusing on his diet and following guidance from his doctors.
“I got the reins,” he said. “I’m in control. I’m not going to let this control me. There is some medicines that I’ve been taking from the doctor’s side of it, so I made sure [to stay] on my protocol there, but on my side, the food is my medicine.”
Parkinson’s progresses in stages, beginning with simple tremors or changes in posture and walking, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation. As the disease progresses, patients may find it difficult or impossible to stand on their own and may eventually be confined to a wheelchair, requiring full-time care.
“I’m ahead of it right now,” Green said. “For the doctors that examine me, they said really, if they didn’t know what they knew about the early signs, they would have thought I was in great [shape] … until they really sat me down, between taking my vitals to having me walk in front of them and what they saw in my walk, in my gait and the way my shoulders hang.”
Green is the second Packers legend to reveal a Parkinson’s diagnosis in the past two years. Former quarterback Brett Favre announced he has the disease in September 2024. He explained in 2025 that his condition presents more with rigidity and stiffness than tremors, and that he takes medicine every four hours to manage symptoms.
“I can only imagine what I look like, but I feel like a pretzel,” Favre, 56, told CBS Sports. “Everything is so rigid. I take the medicine and 20 minutes later, at least in my mind, it’s like a [totally] new body.”
