Ernie Johnson Jr. is at the top of his game as a sportscaster for Turner Sports and CBS Sports—the lead TV voice for Major League Baseball (TBS), the host of Inside the NBA (TNT), and a contributor to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament (Turner and CBS). He is also a faithful Christian and a father who has adopted children, one of whom has special needs, a boy named Michael.
When Cheryl, Ernie's wife, was introduced to then three-year-old Michael, he had a club foot and was unable to speak. When she called home to share her experience, and said she would wonder what had happened to the boy for the rest of her life, Ernie told his wife to "bring him home."
Later, Michael was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and now at 26 he is attached to a ventilator and uses a wheelchair. Yet though his care has been both extensive and expensive, Ernie and Cheryl Johnson have not shrunk from the challenges or resisted new ones. Ernie says:
Some people can be driven by going on mission trips, digging wells for kids who don't have water. Everybody's wired differently. This is one of the ways we're wired. We have this heart for adoption. It's rooted in our faith, our Christian faith. We're instructed to care for orphans and widows. We don't want credit. We don't want pats on the back. We're getting a heck of a lot more out of it than they are.
