Over the past two days, it has not been hard to find tributes to one of the greatest and most recognizable anchors ESPN ever saw: Stuart Scott. Scott’s accomplishments and what he meant to that network and sports in general have been rightfully documented.
He is credited for living life to the fullest. He is credited for always working hard at and perfecting his craft. And, as any man would want, he is credited for being a devoted father to his children. What they are going through is indescribable.
But what we most remember Scott for from the journalistic aspect is, ironically, what many sports journalists criticized about him for at least a decade. The “urban flare,” as it was described, that Scott brought to ESPN with catchphrases such as “BooYah!” and “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game,” had many old-school newspaper reporters and broadcasters fuming at where sports journalism was going.
I attended my first sports journalism camp in high school, and I was told by people in the industry not to take ESPN seriously because the anchors weren’t “real journalists.” The catchphrases and uses of slang, along with the personalities created on the channel, were all attacked. Scott was the main target of all of this.
In short, Scott was criticized for bringing entertainment to sports, an entertainment industry. Saying that Scott brought a new style to sports journalism doesn’t do him justice. He didn’t just bring a new style. He changed how sports journalism should be viewed.
Many of us in the Sports Blogosphere can relate to the criticism of Scott. We are out to create another avenue for the ever-increasing national forum for sports talk which, yes, adds entertainment to an entertainment industry.
As sports bloggers, we generate controversy, anger, laughs, and sometimes more serious emotions. But we are in it for the entertainment, which, not incidentally, is what keeps people watching the sports to begin with.
So today, it is laughable for sports bloggers to be accused of not being real writers simply because of the entertainment factor, as if that somehow makes us lesser journalists.
The same was true for Scott. For years, his use of catchphrases and his animated anchoring angered “real sports journalists.” He and ESPN were criticized for not offering the same stiff sports reporting that had become common.
Sports journalists who acted as if their reporting was finding a cure for cancer hated Scott and the network for it.
But we are not covering wars, politics, or medicine.
We are covering an industry designed to entertain. Predictions, arguments, prognostications, and animated personalities all have a place.
Scott understood that. He got away with changing the rule book because he was good at what he did. He knew sports, he got his facts right and he covered sports in an entertaining way.

With the First Pick
And it is why ESPN is so successful. The channel as a whole understands what sports is.
Their new brand of coverage changed what fans looked for in sports coverage. That is why First Take’s Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless are followed by countless sports enthusiasts. College GameDay and Lee Corso have become an institution in college sports coverage. Everyone pays attention to ESPN’s Power Rankings and Top 25, even though they have no bearing on what happens to teams.
Scott was part of transforming that culture of sports journalism, and that is why so many of us admire him. He anchored the same way people close to him say he lived: full of life.
And for that, he is now being rightly remembered by the sports world, not criticized. Rest in Peace Stuart Scott. You are already missed.
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