Michael Strahan is defending his behavior in a controversial "Good Morning America" interview with former NFL star Chris Johnson.
Johnson, a former standout running back for the Tennessee Titans, has been diagnosed with ALS. Johnson shared his diagnosis during a sitdown interview with Strahan for "GMA." During the interview, Strahan failed to ask Johnson if he felt like his football career played a role in his diagnosis. Former NFL players have been getting diagnosed with ALS at a higher rate than normal.
“I want people to understand just how quickly ALS can attack your body,” Johnson said. “Just over a year ago, I was picking up my 7-year-old daughter so she’d make a wish with her birthday cake. Today, I couldn’t do that.”
Former Sports Illustrated writer Jeff Pearlman was among those criticizing Strahan.
“We know by now through studies that there is a correlation between playing football and ALS. A much higher percentage of people who play football, specifically in the NFL, wind up with ALS than the general population. It is a known thing. The number of times Michael Strahan, a former football player, asks Chris Johnson about this? Zero. The number of times Good Morning America brings this up? Zero. It is so (expletive) irresponsible and grotesque,” Pearlman said.
“Chris Johnson is dying and he showed up on Good Morning America to tell his story, and Michael Strahan, one of the great cowards on TV in my opinion, sits there and pretends, oh, this is heartbreaking, it’s so sad, I can’t believe this is happening to you, and doesn’t have the courage and the decency and the wherewithal to mention the ties between football and ALS. And that’s because he’s getting paid a (expletive) of money not to. It’s (expletive) disgusting.”
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Dan Le Batard criticized Strahan, too.
“Michael Strahan has a responsibility in that instance to ask some sort of football-related question, and he did not do it,” Le Batard said. “It’s just too uncomfortable. You just can’t enjoy that thing the way you do … when these guys are limping through their retirement homes to an early death.”
Le Batard continued, “The only reason Chris Johnson is on there is not because he has the disease, it’s because he played football. The reason Chris Johnson is being interviewed is because this is a former athlete of some name. They’re not interviewing random people with ALS, they’re interviewing this person. And so to neglect that question is an omission that I don’t know why the omission is there.”
Strahan is defending his behavior, though
Strahan says that he wasn't trying to grandstand, while speaking to Dan Patrick.
“I actually thought about that, because I saw what everyone (said), ‘Well you should have asked this, you should have asked that.’ Well you should have got the interview, how about that?” Strahan said. “That’s one thing.
“Two, that was Chris’s moment for Chris to share the story which Chris wanted to share. And when I got the call that Chris wanted to share that he had ALS, that was the story. It wasn’t for me to try to grand-stand. Which, I hate when people do this, Dan. As an interviewer, our job is to deliver information. I’m not trying to get a bigger name for myself by putting somebody else in an uncomfortable position.”
