It’s Okay To Cry Over Ernie Johnson’s Moving Speech To Nick Saban And Alabama Football

ESPN Twitter


  • Nick Saban invited Inside The NBA host Ernie Johnson to speak in front of his football team this week.
  • In a five-minute clip of the speech posted on Twitter, Johnson touches on the Greater Good, sacrifice, and love.
  • It’s okay to cry.

It’s hard to conceptualize the morality needed to willingly adopt not one, not two, not three, but four children after going through the beautiful agony of raising two biological ones.

After a pair, most fathers spend their free time drinking nips in their local high school’s parking lot.

In a time when the projection of goodness is more valuable than goodness itself, Ernie Johnson is a necessary reminder that walking the walk is cool too.

Philanthropy aside, the Inside the NBA host is raising six kids in Georgia with his wife Cheryl—a disabled son Michael who was adopted from Romania after being abandoned in a park, daughter Carmen adopted from Paraguay, and daughters Ashley and Allison adopted domestically through foster care.

After being invited by Nick Saban to speak to his Alabama football team, the 64-year-old covered a variety of applicable topics:

  • The Greater Good and Knowing Your Role, using the Inside the NBA crew as an example
  • The Value in Everyone
  • Going Unscripted
  • Maximum Effort
  • Love

TLDW: Don’t tweet about it, be about it.

 

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.