Recently it has become trendy for sports media outlets to make fun of the self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports”, ESPN. While the network has reached near monopolistic stature in America, there are competitors looming to point out every flaw, while copying a magnitude of ESPN’s segments and topics.
While everyone is entitled to their thoughts and opinions, it is impossible to deny the fact the ESPN completely revolutionized the industry and opened the door for the multitudes of sports media through TV, print, radio, blogs, etc.
Despite your personal thoughts, experiences and opinions of ESPN, lately the “Mothership” has taken a huge step up in my mind in the past few weeks.
The reason that each one of us love sports so much is that it gives us a comfortable shelter away from the daily-grind of life, while teaching us life lessons the entire time. Certain figures in sports seem larger than life and become iconic.
For me, Stuart Scott was one of those individuals.
During the mid-90’s Scott was coming up at ESPN while I was entering elementary school. His love and enthusiasm drew me to the TV. I wanted to be on SportsCenter calling highlights. I wanted to have my own catchphrases.
As Scott’s fame and career grew, I continued on a path through high school that led me to journalism classes, job shadows at The Oregonian, and now writing for Oregon Sports News.
My respect and admiration for Scott was unlike many others.
On the morning of January 4th, 2015 I woke up to get ready to watch my Dallas Cowboys take on the Detroit Lions in the Wild Card Round of the NFL Playoffs. When I turned on ESPN to watch Sunday NFL Countdown, the news was coming down that Scott had lost his battle to cancer and passed away at the age of 49.
What blew me away and truly made me tip my hat to ESPN was the coverage that they gave to Scott, one of their more iconic anchors and truly a household name across the sports world.
While the NFL is the premier money maker for any sports network that covers it, ESPN took a large portion out of their pregame show to give their respects to Scott. Not only were there kind words spoken by ESPN personalities, the emotion around sports was truly palpable the fateful Sunday. ESPN went long ways in ensuring that we would each remember Scott for who he was and what he did.
Just minutes after the news of his passing broke there were tribute videos already queued up and ready to go. Not only were they highlights of Scott’s work on the air, they featured former ESPN talent such as Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen. A lot of quick work and thought went into that morning.
Scott was a figure that truly superseded sports as celebrities, musicians and even the President of the United States paid their respects.
Five weeks later there was another passing the shook the sporting world.
Even though Coach Dean Smith was much older than Scott and hadn’t been in the spotlight for years, his imprint on the sporting world and the game of basketball is timeless. After spending nearly 40 years at North Carolina, revolutionizing the way the game is played, and coached some of the best college basketball players of all time, Smith left many admirers and fans to cheer his name forever.
Once again, ESPN was right on top of the coverage of Smith’s passing. They brought in former players and really paid tribute to the man that was a great innovator in the game of basketball.
Not to slight any other network, but ESPN was completely on point with their coverage in the passings of both Scott and Smith. Scott, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, really admired Coach Smith. That admiration was evident in the way that he talked about the man that he loved.
Now because of ESPN’s coverage, the general population will be able to pay their respects to these two men that were giants among men and now Saints in sports heaven.
Thank you, ESPN.
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