A man who spent his career absorbing hits on the football field has now said, in a quiet and unguarded way, that his body is carrying a different kind of weight. Marshall Faulk, the Hall of Fame running back now coaching at Southern University, has disclosed that he lives with Parkinson's disease, a condition that began with a stiff hand on a golf course and has so far been held in check by medication. He chose to share this on a podcast, not as a cry for pity but as an offering to anyone who might be standing where he once stood, unsure whether a tremor is merely nerves. Within a life already
Super Bowl Champion Marshall Faulk Says He Is Living With Parkinson's Disease
Faulk, 53, is living with Parkinson's disease, experiencing hand rigidity and tremors that he manages with medication.
He thought it was just nerves while putting
Mark
Why does this announcement land the way it does?
Mimi
Because of who he is. A first-ballot Hall of Famer and an NFL MVP, now a head coach, saying plainly that he has Parkinson's. He also described how it started, which was something as small as a stiff hand while putting.
Mark
He mistook it for nerves at first?
Mimi
Yes. It only worried him when it kept happening while he was playing casually, not in a match. A doctor told him to get checked.
Luke
Worth being clear about what we actually know. All of this is Faulk's own account on a podcast. We have no medical records and no statement from his doctors.
Mark
So the claim that it hasn't worsened is his belief?
Luke
Right. He said he believes the rigidity hasn't progressed because of his treatment. That's his read, not a clinical finding.
Mimi
He's also open about the limits. He mentions hand rigidity and little tremors, not a long list of symptoms.
Mark
What shaped how he's handling it?
Mimi
A dinner with Muhammad Ali. He left thinking Ali was all there, so a diagnosis didn't read to him as the end of life. He compares it to his knee surgeries and his sore back.
Luke
And what we don't know is how the disease will progress, or whether it will affect his coaching duties. The reporting doesn't say, and he hasn't said either.
Mark
What is his stated purpose?
Mimi
He says he wants to help as many people as he can by speaking publicly.
Il Polso
- A stiff hand that first seemed like ordinary golf nerves became the signal that set a diagnosis in motion.
- Faulk, 53, now coaches Southern University through a 3-4 season while living with Parkinson's in full view.
- Medication is holding his symptoms to hand rigidity and small tremors, and he says the stiffness has not worsened in about eighteen months.
- By speaking openly on a neurologist's podcast, he is drawing attention to Parkinson's among athletes and former players who may be silently struggling.
A man who spent his career absorbing hits on the football field has now said, in a quiet and unguarded way, that his body is carrying a different kind of weight. Marshall Faulk, the Hall of Fame running back now coaching at Southern University, has disclosed that he lives with Parkinson's disease, a condition that began with a stiff hand on a golf course and has so far been held in check by medication. He chose to share this on a podcast, not as a cry for pity but as an offering to anyone who might be standing where he once stood, unsure whether a tremor is merely nerves. Within a life already marked by surgeries and hard-won resilience, his words suggest that a diagnosis can be a new chapter rather than an ending.
The first sign came on a golf course. Marshall Faulk, lining up putts, felt his hand stiffen and assumed it was nerves. Only later, when the stiffness appeared even in casual rounds with nothing at stake, did he begin to wonder. A doctor told him bluntly that he needed to be checked, and the answer that followed was Parkinson's disease.
He shared the news this week on "The Caring Neurologist" with host Dr. Sandeep Thakkar. Faulk, now head coach at Southern University, says medication has kept his symptoms mostly to hand rigidity and small tremors, and that the rigidity has not worsened over the roughly year and a half since he began treatment.
His outlook was shaped in part by a dinner with Muhammad Ali, who also lived with Parkinson's. Faulk remembered that Ali seemed entirely himself, and that memory kept him from seeing the diagnosis as the end of anything. He wants his disclosure to reach as many people as possible, in the hope that someone else will get checked sooner.
The first sign came on a golf course. Marshall Faulk, lining up putts, felt his hand stiffen, and he put it down to nerves. That is the account the 53-year-old Pro Football Hall of Famer gave this week when he disclosed that he is living with Parkinson's disease.
Faulk made the announcement Wednesday during an appearance on the podcast "The Caring Neurologist," speaking with host Dr. Sandeep Thakkar. He is now head football coach at Southern University, and he said medication has kept his symptoms largely to rigidity in his hand, along with what he called "little tremors." He believes the rigidity has not worsened over the roughly year and a half he has been dealing with the disease, and he credits his treatment for that.
The path to a diagnosis began with a small thing he almost ignored. Faulk said he assumed the stiffness was the ordinary jitters of putting. Then it began happening when he was playing but not in a match, with nothing at stake. He recalled wondering whether that was normal. When he raised it with a doctor, the response was blunt: he needed to get checked.
His reaction to the result was shaped partly by an earlier encounter. Faulk once had dinner with Muhammad Ali, who also lived with Parkinson's, and he came away thinking, in his words, "He's all there." That memory, he said, kept him from treating the diagnosis as the end of anything. He compared it to the wear his body already carries: several surgeries on his right knee, parts in it that are not original, and a back that hurts every so often.
Faulk said his reason for going public is simple. He told Thakkar he wants to help as many people as he can.
For football fans, the name carries weight. The Indianapolis Colts took Faulk second overall in the 1994 NFL Draft, and the running back spent his first five seasons there. He then joined the St. Louis Rams and played a central role in the team's Super Bowl run in the 1999 season. The following year he was named NFL MVP. He last played in an NFL game in 2005 and went into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
His coaching career is recent. Faulk worked as Colorado's running backs coach under Deion Sanders earlier in 2025, and in November 2025 Southern University named him head coach. In his debut season, the team stands at 3-4.
What comes next is largely in Faulk's own hands and his doctors'. He says the medication is working and that his symptoms remain limited, and he has chosen to talk about it openly while still on the sideline at Southern.
Citazioni salienti
I want to help as many people as I can.— Marshall Faulk, on why he is speaking publicly
He's all there.— Marshall Faulk, recalling his dinner with Muhammad Ali
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