Former NFL ‘Superman’ Tim Green lost his voice to ALS; AI and his podcast gave it back

Troy Green was at a business conference in Victoria, British Columbia, late in 2023 when someone tried to sell him on the virtues of an artificial intelligence program that could simulate a human voice. The program could mimic not just a human voice, but a specific human voice.

“What he was pitching me on was it could recreate my voice,” Green said, “and I could do 1,000 sales calls at once with a robotic voice that sounds just like me.”

Green’s mind immediately went to a different place. Troy Green is the son of Tim Green, the former Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman and Fox NFL broadcaster who is now living with ALS.

“He said all you need is 30 seconds of high-quality audio, and it can make the voice,” Troy said. “I said, ‘Can I take it from an old video?’”

The answer was yes, yet he remained skeptical.

“There are a lot of letdowns in the ALS world,” he said. “There is not a lot of stuff you can get excited about. When you hear about something that could make things better, you don’t want to give yourself false hope.”

Still, when he got home, he got to work, pulling YouTube clips of his father broadcasting NFL games and promoting some of the 42 books he has published, and entering them into AI software created by ElevenLabs. Sure enough, his father’s voice, the voice he had tried so hard to recall from the days before ALS took it away, reemerged. Then Troy gathered his family. He had kept his efforts a secret from his father in case it ended up being just another letdown.

“The first time I played it, one of my sisters started to cry,” he said. “It’s really emotional. My dad, I don’t even think when he first heard it, he totally understood what it was. I said, ‘What do you want it to say?’”

The father and son had already been planning to start a podcast using the computer-generated synthetic voice that Tim had used since losing his voice to the disease. That podcast — “Nothing Left Unsaid” — just released its 80th episode.

“I didn’t know it was really possible until Troy showed me. We had recorded our first episode, and Troy told me that he was going to try a new voice in the edits,” Tim said. “He seemed excited about it, but I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I thought I might not hear my voice ever again. ALS is a cruel disease. It robs its victims of so much, and your voice is as personal as it gets.”

Joe Buck felt the same shock when he heard his old friend’s voice.

“My jaw hit the desk when I was on his podcast and his voice was coming back at me,” Buck said.

Buck has known Green and his booming voice and presence since 1994, when they auditioned together for Fox Sports’ NFL announcing team.

“It went so well that not only did it set up the next 28 years of my life and career, but it also went so well that they paired us together,” Buck said.

One of their first trips after being hired was not to a football game but to a corporate seminar in Los Angeles.

“He was going through law school at the time and was also starting to write,” Buck said. “He kept himself on East Coast time when we were out there. Everybody was getting to know each other, everybody was going to the bar. I was 25 years old. I was getting to know the executives and the other broadcasters. He went to bed and got up at 4 a.m. so he could study.”

That was Buck’s first look at the work ethic that had carried Green from Liverpool High School in upstate New York to a Hall of Fame career at Syracuse to a first-round selection by the Falcons in the 1986 NFL Draft to that stop at Fox to becoming a practicing attorney and a New York Times best-selling author and, at age 61, to perhaps the most unlikely place — living with ALS and hosting a podcast.

“My feeling about Tim Green is that most of us are just ordinary citizens and adults. Tim has been extraordinary in everything he has done, everything he has touched,” George O’Leary, who was Green’s head coach at Liverpool and his defensive line coach at Syracuse before becoming the head coach at Georgia Tech, said.

O’Leary first met Green as an eighth grader who was grilling him about how quickly he could play on the varsity team.

“Ever since I first met him, he’s had that drive,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary still sees it as unfair that Green was stricken with ALS.

“I get sick to my stomach when I see him in that condition physically, but mentally, boy, is he sharp,” O’Leary said. “It’s sad to see him in the situation he’s in, but he handles it with great character. Every time I see him, I say, ‘Boy, I don’t know if I could do that.’”

He knew Green could, though. In the intro to “Nothing Left Unsaid,” Green says, “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. I don’t feel sorry for me.” But he acknowledges that coming to grips with the disease was difficult.

“ALS is unfair to anyone who gets it. There is no way around that,” he said. “I had to grieve the life I had, the physical freedom and the things I thought I’d be doing well into my later years, but I also realized early on that if I stayed focused on what I lost, I’d lose twice.”

Green spoke to The Athletic on two occasions using the ElevenLabs voice technology. He has shifted his perspective, he said, to what he still has and what he can still do.

“I’ve found new ways to stay connected and to create, to make a difference,” he said. “It’s not the path I would have chosen, but I have learned that meaning can come from any road you’re forced to walk. I have processed it by accepting that my body’s limitations don’t have to define the impact I can make. ALS has taken a lot from me, but it hasn’t taken my purpose.”

A big part of that purpose is now the podcast. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, singers Bruce Hornsby and Huey Lewis, authors Carl Hiaasen and Malcolm Gladwell, NBA superstar Charles Barkley and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick all have been guests.

“It’s tough to pick a favorite guest because of the diversity of stories and guests that we have had,” Green said. “Every episode has a few gems depending on what you’re facing in life.”

While ALS has slowed Green’s life physically, slow has always been relative for Green. He is still a practicing lawyer and just completed “Rocket Arm,” the second book he has written entirely with the use of eye-tracking technology.

“Do I have ALS? Yes. Am I still able to do a lot also? Yes,” Green said. “I don’t want people to put limitations on or lower expectations for me or anyone living with ALS. I have done a lot in my life and have no plans of letting this stop me.”

Green remains a fan of the Falcons, the team that drafted him with the 17th pick in 1986, and usually attends at least one game a year. In 2024, Green appeared at a Falcons-Saints game with former New Orleans player Steve Gleason, who is also living with ALS, to promote RivALS, an organization that sponsors 50/50 raffles at the games to raise money for ALS causes.

“I would say (Green) is one of the most inspirational human beings I have ever been around,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said. “If you spend time with Tim Green, he is one of the happiest people you would meet any day, any hour of day, any day of the week, which is incredible given the cards he has been dealt right now.”

Blank has appeared on the podcast, as well, speaking about his family background and the power of philanthropy.

“We have some really diverse and fascinating guests,” Green said. “I just let my curiosity off its leash. It has definitely sped things up. I barely get caught up before it’s time to record another podcast.”

The people who have known him the longest think that’s a good thing.

“He was always the busiest person,” Buck said. “He’s like the Stephen King of sports books. Every three months, it seemed like there was another book coming out. He’s a multitasker, and he likes having action and things to occupy his mind. I think this podcast is really good for him.”

“It keeps him busy. That’s the key,” O’Leary said. “Otherwise, you’re sitting in that wheelchair, and there’s only so much you can do. It keeps him on a daily schedule. He’s always been a very disciplined, detailed guy. When he has stuff ahead of him that he knows he has to do, I think it’s a great outlet for him to keep busy and have his opinion expressed.”

When he first met Green, Buck was struck by his resemblance to actor Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in the 1978 movie and its sequels. He still thinks of Green as something of a Superman.

“Now he’s a gray Superman, but he’s still got the look,” Buck said. “There’s the age-old saying that God gives you what you can handle. I do believe if there is anybody that’s equipped to handle all that he is handling, it’s Tim Green. He was always stronger than anything that was in his way, and I think that continues to this day. He always had a great laugh. He still has it. He’s just a lover of life.”

Green still finds that love in his current life.

“Doing the podcast with my son has been one of the greatest gifts of this chapter in my life,” Green said. “The podcast gives us meaningful time together and a podcast we are both passionate about.”

For Troy, the podcast fulfills a childhood dream, although not in a way he ever could have imagined.

“My dad has been my superhero since I was little. I’ve said since I was 3 years old that we wanted to work together,” he said. “Any excuse for us to hang out, I take it. So this has been awesome and a lot of fun.”

It’s possible, Tim hopes, that the type of artificial intelligence advancements that allow him to hear himself again could lead to further breakthroughs in treatment options for the disease he deals with daily.

“Things have historically moved very slowly because of the lack of funding. There are a few medications in trials right now that are actually using the words repair and regeneration, which is really exciting to hear,” he said. “There was also a breakthrough in one of the genetic forms of ALS that showed people getting better as it was treated. That is a huge milestone because if we can treat ALS, the body can regain function and not just let go.”

(All photos courtesy of Tim Green)