Dan Marino had no obvious symptoms when he went for a regular examination in 2007. The NFL great tells PEOPLE he was “a little fatigued.” And he acknowledges, “I wasn’t really working out as much as I should—because I used to work out when I played all the time, and I kind of got away from that a little bit.”

“Those are the things I noticed,” says Marino, 64. “Then they informed me I had a fatty liver.” I had MASH.

Metabolically dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) was previously recognized as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. According to the Cleveland Clinic, it occurs when extra fat cells build in the liver, causing persistent inflammation and eventually leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

According to the Hall of Famer, “The doctors immediately indicated it may be reversible, that it can be taken care of, but, particularly for me, they were saying, like, ‘You must work out.'” You need to lose weight,” he remarked.

The former Miami Dolphins quarterback is talking about his diagnosis—and how he improved his health—as part of Novo Nordisk’s Unordinary Stories initiative, in which athletes share their own health experiences.

Marino’s path includes leaning on friends and family for support while he prioritizes his health. Former teammate Terry Kirby trains Marino at his neighboring gym, and his wife, Claire, joins him on nightly walks and bike rides. In a campaign video, he claims Claire is “helping me with doctor’s appointments, being on time, and making sure I’m doing the right things.”

He appreciates their support.

“It’s the people that love you, and you love them,” he tells PEOPLE. “It feels like a little village.”

Regarding the diagnosis, he says he’s recognized he needs to prioritize his health on a “consistent basis.” “It’s the exercise, riding a bike, walking, and diet, and then getting back to just being consistent—waking up and making sure you have to do something every day.”

Marino believes that his MASH was caused primarily by his diet. He stated to PEOPLE that when he played football, “you had weigh-ins, all those kinds of things.” After retiring from the NFL in 2000, he admitted, “I kind of let my diet go … that’s really where it came about.”

He stated that his doctor advised him to follow the Mediterranean diet and to “cut back on the wine, pizza, candy, ice cream, those kinds of things, you know—you can’t eat them as much.”

Marino said he’s sharing his condition so others realize that “if you get diagnosed with fatty liver and MASH, doing the things you need to do, like I talked about—diet and working out—and staying consistent with it, that’s what our message really is.”

He now claims that his illness has not changed. I have the ultrasounds and everything every year, and so far it’s been OK”—and he feels his prognosis will “grow better and better and better.”

“That’s what makes me feel good about this [campaign],” he stated, saying that he would like to “get people aware of it, so maybe they can get treated and it can make a difference in their lives.”