Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide have experienced overwhelming success in the world of college football, winning myriad championships and generally dominating the sport. Saban is regarded as perhaps the best to ever do it as a head coach in the sport and, when prompted with the opportunity to speak to Alabama’s team, TNT’s Ernie Johnson expressed that the only question is “What time?” rather than a yes or no proposition. Johnson recently delivered an uplifting message to the Crimson Tide that was captured and shared on social media, and it was as poignant as you may expect.
– Love You Too @TurnerSportsEJ
“Make somebody’s life Better.”#BamaFactor #RollTide pic.twitter.com/h7aN8YbLwj
— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) August 11, 2021
Johnson shared about knowing one’s role, pointing to his own work at Inside The NBA and playfully acknowledging that observers aren’t exactly tuned into that broadcast for his basketball knowledge. Instead, Johnson indicated that he knows his role is to make others shine, and that feeds into the bigger message to attempt to improve the lives of those around you.
“When you step away from your agenda and notice that there are moments that can make somebody’s life better, that’s all that I try to teach my kids,” Johnson said. “When you wake up in the morning, how am I going to make somebody else’s life better today? There’s a team much bigger than this, there’s a team that is trying to make somebody’s day better, that’s all of us.”
From there, Johnson revealed a t-shirt that read “Be A Better Human” and delivered a challenge to the team to follow that ethos. Following the visit, Johnson also re-shared Alabama’s video and poked fun at a graduate of the University of Georgia being able to share a moment with Alabama in this setting.
Honored to be there. Sure I’m a proud @universityofga grad speaking at @UofAlabama but I think/hope the message applies wherever your allegiance lies. Also you can get the t shirt @combatflipflops (they’re awesome folks who get it!) https://t.co/H0kUp4skWo
— Ernie Johnson (@TurnerSportsEJ) August 11, 2021
Johnson is widely seen as a tremendous human being and he has a powerful personal story. It certainly isn’t a surprise that he would be called upon to speak to a team like this, but the messaging holds up and everyone could use a reminder to heed this advice.