Marshall Faulk Says He Has Parkinson’s Disease: What the Hall of Famer Revealed About His Diagnosis
Marshall Faulk noticed it on a golf course. His hand would stiffen up after a long round, and he assumed it was the ordinary nerves that come with standing over a putt. Then it kept happening when nothing was on the line.
What He Said About the Diagnosis
The Pro Football Hall of Fame running back, now the head coach at Southern University, disclosed that he has Parkinson’s disease in an interview on “The Caring Neurologist,” a podcast hosted by Dr. Sandeep Thakkar. The episode was released Oct. 21, and The Advocate in Baton Rouge first reported it on Oct. 22.
“I just thought it was normal nerves when putting and stuff like that,” Faulk said. “The rigidity in my hand, just sometimes after I play a lot or I practice a lot.”
Faulk said he has been dealing with it for roughly 18 months, which places the diagnosis around the spring of 2025. He raised the hand stiffness at one of his two annual physicals, and his doctor told him to go get checked.
He describes his symptoms as hand rigidity and what he called “the little tremors that I get, you know, they are what they are.” He says the rigidity has not worsened over those 18 months, that he has no cognitive decline, and that medication has largely controlled it.
“And since I’ve started on the medication, I don’t really have a lot of issues,” he said. “I’m functioning. I’m good. You know, I just think I caught it early. I’m in a good place.”
He called himself one of the lucky ones for catching it early, cited Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox as reasons he never viewed a diagnosis as the end of anything, and gave a simple reason for going public: “I want to help as many people as I can.”
He Is in His First Year as a Head Coach
Faulk, 53, took the Southern job in late November 2025 and was introduced at a press conference on Dec. 1. It is the first head coaching job of his career at any level. He came from Colorado, where he coached running backs under Deion Sanders in 2025.
Southern is 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the SWAC, and Faulk inherited a program that went 2-10 the year before he got there. The Jaguars play Texas Southern on Saturday. He is doing that job while managing a progressive neurological condition, and he chose to disclose it on a medical podcast rather than through a school press release.
The Resume Behind It
Faulk was the No. 2 overall pick in 1994 out of San Diego State. He spent five seasons with the Colts and seven with the Rams, 176 games across 12 years: 12,279 rushing yards, 6,875 receiving yards, 767 catches, 136 total touchdowns, 100 of them on the ground.
In 1999 he put up 1,381 rushing yards and 1,048 receiving yards, 2,429 from scrimmage, which was then an NFL single-season record. He became the second player in league history with 1,000 of each in one year, after Roger Craig in 1985. That Rams team beat Tennessee 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV. He was the AP Offensive Player of the Year in 1999, 2000 and 2001, league MVP in 2000, and a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2011.
What We Do Not Know
Faulk did not attribute his diagnosis to football, and nobody should do it for him. A 2023 study in JAMA Network Open from the Boston University CTE Center did find that men who played football reported 61 percent higher odds of a parkinsonism or Parkinson’s diagnosis than men who played other organized sports. That study was cross-sectional and self-reported, it cannot establish causation, and most of its diagnosed participants played only at the amateur level.
Brett Favre disclosed his own Parkinson’s diagnosis in September 2024. Former Packers running back Ahman Green disclosed his in July. No medication has been named in Faulk’s case, and as of now the Rams, the Colts, Southern and the NFL have not issued statements. The only public reaction has come from individual media members. Faulk handled the whole thing himself, and he sounded steady doing it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
