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.
