Stuart Scott felt like family. For years, I have watched him on SportsCenter delivering the sporting news as only he could. His trademark expressions elevated the SportsCenter broadcast in ways that made us watch and listen with anticipation for one of his funky catchphrases. Of course we hoped that when we repeated the phrase the next day, we too, would deliver it like “straight butta”. Who else could say “swoopes there it is” and we knew exactly what he meant.
As his colleagues, the athletes that he covered, friends and sports fans pay homage to his incredible broadcast skills; I am struck and touched by his exuberant expressions of love and care for his daughters. He beamed with pride when talking about their accomplishments. He hugged them tightly, smiled broadly at the mere mention of their names and said that THEY not SportsCenter were the best things he’d ever done or would do. His actions and words were congruent when it came to his daughters. There was no mistaking where his true affections lay and when a father says to his daughters “you two are my heartbeat,” well its “like gravy on a biscuit, it’s all good.”
Stuart Scott showed us that the physical embrace of our children, the celebration of who they are, and unashamedly expressing words of love matters. Stuart Scott the father, a man who longed to walk his daughters down the aisle, who wistfully imagined them seeking a future home loan from him, painted a picture of one who understood the fragility of life and the preciousness of relationships. You cannot watch his speech from the 2014 ESPYS without sending up a prayer to the “big man” for his family especially his daughters, hoping that they will take comfort in knowing that they were the loves of his life and the desires of his heart. It is a blessing that his daughters will get to listen to his words over and over again and that gift is “as cool as the other side of the pillow”.
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Grief has its own inscape and each of us will grieve our loss of his presence in our own way. Stuart Scott never asked why and I will honor him by reframing from the same. But I believe that we can all agree that there is nothing more beautiful, more magnificent than a father loving his daughters. And to that I say, booyah!
