Ernie Johnson explains heartfelt reason for missing The Match

Ernie Johnson explained why he wasn’t in the booth for The Match. 

When thinking about the voice of a network, it’s hard to separate Ernie Johnson and Turner.

Like Joe Buck to FOX or Jim Nantz to CBS, Johnson is deeply embedded in all things Turner Sports. He’s the straight man on the best NBA studio show, his voice is the sound of Wild Card baseball, and we expected to hear him navigating The Match on Sunday afternoon.

But Johnson wasn’t in the booth. Instead he was at home taking precautions to keep his family safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Johnson explained that the main reason he wasn’t part of the broadcast in the booth was because he didn’t want to endanger his 31-year-old son Michael.

“He gets lung infections all the time,” Johnson said, “I didn’t think it was worth the risk of bringing in an unseen foe into our house.”

Michael Johnson has been on a ventilator for the last nine years of his life, putting him in the high-risk group for COVID-19 infection. Rather than risk the life of someone else to do something he wanted to do, Johnson stayed home.

It’s not the first time Johnson has chosen health and safety over calling a sporting event. Back in 2018, he sat out TBS’s postseason baseball coverage because of blood clots. That was for his own personal health, where this decision had everything to do with how his actions might affect someone else.

With basketball looking like it will return to us in the next couple of months, Johnson’s absence might not be that long. However, just because sports come back to us in a world that might not be safe enough to venture out in doesn’t mean that Johnson will all of a sudden decide to return.