Must-Watch
It's not fair that the Alabama football team was treated to this inspirational speech from the legendary Ernie Johnson
Of all the college football programs that are in need of inspirational speeches, the last program on the list would be the Alabama Crimson Tide. After winning its sixth national title in the Nick Saban era last year, the Tide are primed and ready to go back-to-back in 2021, something Saban has "only" done once during his tenure (2011, 2012).
With Saban at the helm, we're not sure how much more inspiration or motivation the team needs, but they got a boat load of it recently from the legendary Ernie Johnson. In a video that has already been viewed over 2.5 million times, Johnson—a Georgia Bulldog—delivers a heartfelt speech focusing one of his four adopted children, Michael, who Johnson and his wife decided to take in after Mrs. Johnson watched an ABC News story about Romanian orphans.
As Johnson goes on to explain, the nurse who handed Michael to he and his wife Cheryl told them "Don't take this boy, he's no good." The Johnsons, who had two biological children already, persisted, and now Michael, who they adopted in 1991, is in his 30s, this despite the fact he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and not expected to live past his teens. We'll let Ernie take it from here. This is worth all five minutes and 20 seconds of your time:
First, that was simply incredible, the type of speech that actually makes you want to go do something good for someone else before you forget to and continue being a selfish piece of crap. Second, this is so unfair. Alabama needs NO extra reason to be inspired, and after hearing this I'm not sure how they don't win every game by 30-plus in 2021. Playing for each other, loving each other, being better people, etc. Yeah, the Tide totally need all that extra inspo. The rich get (spiritually) richer.
Side note - this is a tough look for Kirby Smart. Johnson, a Georgia alum, delivering a five-star speech to Alabama, a team that has owned the Dawgs for well over a decade now. If Kirby doesn't respond by bringing in Joe Namath, this will go down as another moment where Saban has dummied him into submission.