3 minSports
Marshall Faulk Says He Is Living With Parkinson's Disease
Pro Football Hall of Famer and Southern University coach Marshall Faulk announced he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, saying medication has limited his symptoms to hand rigidity and that he hopes going public will help others.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk, now the head football coach at Southern University, announced that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Faulk, 53, disclosed the diagnosis during an appearance on «The Caring Neurologist» podcast, saying he has been dealing with the condition for about a year and a half.
Faulk said medication has helped keep his symptoms largely limited to rigidity in his hands, and that the stiffness has not worsened over that period because of his treatment. He also described experiencing what he called «little tremors.» He told host Dr. Sandeep Thakkar that he hopes speaking publicly about the diagnosis will help others facing similar circumstances. «I want to help as many people as I can,» Faulk said.
The former running back said he first noticed the hand rigidity while golfing and initially dismissed it as ordinary nerves. He grew concerned when the stiffness persisted even when he was not in a competitive round. «I just thought it was normal nerves when putting and stuff like that,» Faulk said. «But it started to be times where... I was playing, but I wasn't in a match, and it would still do that. And I was like, 'Wow, is that something -- is that normal?' And the doctor was -- he literally was like, 'You need to go get checked.'»
Faulk said his outlook on the diagnosis was shaped in part by a dinner he once shared with Muhammad Ali, who also lived with Parkinson's. He came away from that encounter thinking, «He's all there,» and said the experience kept him from viewing a diagnosis as the end of his life. «So, knowing that, I didn't look at it like if I got a diagnosis, life was going to end,» Faulk said. «I treat it like -- I've had a bunch of surgeries on my right knee. There's some parts in it that aren't mine, that aren't original. My back, you know, it hurts every once in a while.»
Faulk was selected No. 2 overall by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1994 NFL Draft and spent his first five NFL seasons in Indianapolis before joining the St. Louis Rams, where he played a central role in the team's Super Bowl run during the 1999 season. He was named NFL MVP the following year and last played in an NFL game in 2005. He was a first-ballot inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Faulk returned to coaching in November 2025, when he was named Southern University's head coach after serving as Colorado's running backs coach under Deion Sanders earlier that year. Southern is 3-4 so far in Faulk's debut season. His announcement adds his name to a growing group of former NFL players who have spoken publicly about serious health conditions in recent years.
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