Cool as the Other Side of the Pillow

     When Stuart Scoot first started appearing on Sportscenter I wondered, “Who is this guy?”  I have to admit he made me laugh and was a great addition to the Sportscenter desk. I loved Kenny Mayne and Dan Patrick as a broadcast pair; their straight men deliveries often lead to hilarity. Chris Berman had been throwing references to songs and musicians into all his highlight shows for a good while already, so over the top silliness with a dash of personality on Sportscenter was definitely not outside the norm.

      Into that crazy mix dropped Stuart Scott and the bar was raised just a tad. With his signature lines, each delivered with their own specific cadence and emphasis he made himself stand out from not only the broadcasters on ESPN, but all the other networks as well.  Those signature lines were original and sounded like them just came naturally to him. I wondered when I first saw him on screen if those lines were stolen from some long forgotten standup comic on Holiday Inn cirucuit or a wannabe rapper street performer. No matter the origin of those lines, they made us sit down to watch and take notice.

      As I continued to tune into Sportscenter I noticed a change; as the old guard at ESPN were moving on the new guys were trying to be Stuart Scott and failing.  Sportscenter turned into an contest to see who could come up with the zingiest one liner to go through the highlights.  It is said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery; no one said the imitation had to be good. I realized after a while that Stuart Scott was in a class by himself; he owned who he was and shared it with the rest of us. If the highlight show had been music, then he was the Michael Jackson of Sportscenter; he had the music in him.

      I ‘ve watched some of the tributes to him over the past couple days as the news of his passing hit the airwaves and everyone seemed to have a story to tell about Stuart’s influence on their life and career.  There were two poignant moments that stood out to me from all the others. The first was from Robin Roberts, a tough and very cool lady who had her own battle with the Big C, and how the two of them helped each other fight the good fight. The other was from Keyshawn Johnson on Game Day. It was a side of him that I’ve never seen on air before. The huskiness of his voice as he related his Stuart story barely disguised the emotion it was obvious he was feeling. If anyone was going to cry on that set I would have expected it to be Cris Carter.

      I watched his acceptance speech at the ESPY’s for the Jimmy V award; dry eyes were not in attendance for this seat.

     The sports world and the rest of the world lost one of the good guys, who will forever remain as cool as the other side of the pillow.