Hall of Fame defensive end and multi-platform TV personality Michael Strahan took some criticism last month for not mentioning the connection between ALS and football in his interview with former NFL running back Chris Johnson, who disclosed that he has the disease.<\/p>\n
Appearing on Tuesday\u2019s edition of The Dan Patrick Show, Patrick asked Strahan if, in retrospect, Strahan believes he should have asked that question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I had that \u2014 I actually thought about that<\/a>, because I saw what every[one said], \u2018Well you should have asked this, you should have asked that.\u2019 Well, you should have got the interview. How about that?\u201d Strahan said. \u201cThat\u2019s one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s one sort of petty thing. The \u201cget\u201d doesn\u2019t become a license to not get to the right questions. It also invites the question, generally speaking, as to whether an \u201cexclusive\u201d interview was less of a \u201cget\u201d and more of a \u201cgive\u201d to someone who won\u2019t ask the most probing and necessary questions.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo,\u201d Strahan told Patrick, \u201ctwo, that was Chris\u2019s 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 has, you know, ALS, that was the story. It wasn\u2019t for me to try to grandstand, which \u2014 I hate when people do this, Dan. As an interviewer, our job is [to] deliver information. I\u2019m not trying to get a bigger name for myself by putting somebody else in an uncomfortable position. I was there as a service to Chris, for what Chris wanted people to understand and know about his life and where he was now. I was not there to make a story about myself or to get a big headline \u2014 that\u2019s what it wasn\u2019t about. The headlines were about Chris is where they needed to be. <\/p>\n \u201cI did ask Chris about football, how the NFL has been supportive and all those things. He has twin boys who play football right now. So there are so many things that people don\u2019t know but a few were critical of, but overall I\u2019m very proud of what we did there at ABC in bringing that story. And I\u2019m very proud and very happy that Chris trusted us to tell it. Because that was Chris\u2019s story to tell. The headline\u2019s about Chris Johnson, not about Michael Strahan. I don\u2019t make any of these things about myself. And that was the disappointing thing for a few people who were critical of that. But if you don\u2019t have critics that means you\u2019re not doing a good job, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Many would say that\u2019s not how an interview should work, even on a feel-good network morning show. Certain topics are unavoidable. It\u2019s not \u201cgrandstanding\u201d to ask an obvious question and to trust that the subject of the interview will be able to handle it.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you believe your ALS is a result of playing football?\u201d If yes, \u201cWould you have still played football if you knew then what you know now?\u201d (The fact that Johnson\u2019s sons play football makes those questions even more appropriate.)<\/p>\n And it\u2019s obvious that there\u2019s a connection between ALS and football, starting with the fact that ALS is a no-questions-asked condition that triggers payment under the NFL\u2019s concussion settlement fund and continuing with the studies that show an increased risk of ALS<\/a> for those who played in the NFL.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the other point that Strahan didn\u2019t address. After the interview, when Strahan and his colleagues discussed the situation in the studio, the obvious connection could have, and arguably should have, been mentioned. Indeed, Strahan\u2019s narration of the interview included the conclusion that Johnson\u2019s diagnosis was attributed not to a family history of ALS<\/a> but to the 90 percent of ALS cases that are regarded as \u201csporadic\u201d with no known cause. <\/p>\n