Michael Strahan unwittingly ended up becoming the subject of debate after he conducted a post-game interview with the San Francisco 49ers after their victorious NFC Championship Game.
Some commenters on social media and even a few sports journalists took to social media to criticize the Good Morning America anchor for his handling of the session for NFL on FOX, particularly for quoting wrong statistics from the game, incorrectly mentioning how running back Christian McCaffrey made the team, and for failing to interview legendary 49ers quarterback Joe Montana.
On the latest episode of their podcast, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes came to their co-star's defense, devoting more of their podcast than ever before to one of their former colleagues.
T.J. addressed at the start: "We never thought we would take up an entire podcast talking about a friend of ours that was prompted by headlines we read in the morning. That sounds crazy, but that's exactly what happened."
They talked about seeing headlines about "a very dear friend of ours," with Amy adding that they watched the playoff games, particularly when the 49ers defeated the Detroit Lions to earn their spot in the Super Bowl and face off against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Amy stated that they woke up the next morning and saw headlines pop up about their "dear friend Michael Strahan" and watched the video for themselves to decipher what got people upset.
"This is actually painful for me," Amy added. "Because I'm not a fan, and I know you're not a fan either, of reading clickbait. But this is exactly what it is."
"We thought 'Oh my gosh, what did he do? What did he say? We have to watch!'," she continued, with T.J. citing that they were "terrified" going into it, and Amy's reaction to it was "Huh?"
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"I was expecting something terrible," she added. "What I saw was an excited, a little frenetic, a not perfect in a live event moment, where someone is trying to be a ringleader in a three-ring circus."
T.J. also said: "He did it, by the way. And he did a good job of it, I would argue…that's exactly what live TV is. None of it's going to be perfect!"
The couple then discussed the pressures placed upon journalists in live TV environments to deliver accurate and consistent reports while forgetting that they are humans and can make mistakes.
© Getty ImagesAfter taking some time to reminisce on some of the earlier errors they'd made in their own journalistic careers, embarrassing ones that they ultimately learned from, they closed it out by sharing a positive note about their relationship with their former ABC News co-anchor.
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"Obviously we love Stray (Strahan). But we don't need to defend Stray, Stray's good," T.J. concluded. "It was just something that was on our mind that was funny and painful and triggering, to a certain degree."
© Getty ImagesAmy then implored for everyone to provide grace, and when her boyfriend reacted with skepticism, joked: "I'm sure I just convinced everyone to be kind!"
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