Who’s responsible for navigating the tempestuous waters of Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley? Mostly, it is none other than Ernie Johnson. During college, Johnson got his first sportscasting job as the news and sports director for the radio station WAGQ-FM in Athens, Georgia. After gaining relevant experience and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, Johnson switched to Turner Sports in 1989.

And this acted as a stepping stone for his marvelous career. He then started covering NBA, PGA Tour events, and NCAA Tournaments. Consequently, this offered him an illustrious opportunity to win the Sports Emmy Award four times. Just like his professional career, his personal life, too, remains under the spotlight.

Johnson family dynamics

The TNT host has never been exempted from the spotlight. And this is not something new to him. His father, Ernie Johnson, was a Major League baseball pitcher from 1962 to 1999. Following his father’s footsteps, Ernie worked on to achieve a similar feat. He is a studio host for Major League Baseball on TBS, and for NBA on TNT.

Back in 1982, Ernie found a perfect partner in Cheryl, who is a licensed professional counselor and a brand ambassador for Street Grace. Apart from this, she also features as a member of FACE, a group that works to end child sex trafficking. Together, Cheryl and Ernie are parents to six children. While two of them, son Eric and daughter Maggie, are biological, Michael, Carmen, Ashley, and Allison were adopted. Allison and Ashley were adopted through domestic foster-care, Michael was from Romania and Carmen is from Paraguay. Looks like a happy family, right? But, this family, too, has faced various drawbacks.

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Ernie Johnson passing the test of resilience

For the first time, Johnson’s family faced a major upset in the form of health issues. Even though he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2003, it was not enough to break his unwavering determination. And he worked until his treatment in 2006. After missing the network’s coverage of the British Open and PGA Championship, Ernie finally returned.

However, bad luck struck once again. This time, Michael, the adopted son of the couple, was under the radar. At the time of adoption, the Johnsons already knew about Michael’s muscular dystrophy, which causes respiratory issues that require a ventilator. As Michael grew, so did his disease. And, when he turned 33, he finally lost the hard-fought battle on October 29, 2021.

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