The disability Angle In ESPN’s New Stuart Scott Film
As I write this, I’m three-quarters into ESPN’s latest 30 for 30 film, which premiered last week. The nearly 90-minute documentary, titled Boo-Yah: A Portrait of Stuart Scott, chronicles Scott’s life, both personally and professionally as a Black broadcast journalist. Scott, who died of cancer at age 49 in 2015, joined ESPN in 1993 and eventually rose to prominence to become the most popular SportsCenter anchor.
ESPN described the film last month in a press release as “[tracing] Stuart’s journey from local television in North Carolina to becoming one of ESPN’s most influential voices. At a time when hip-hop and popular culture was often marginalized in mainstream media and few Black anchors held national prominence, Stuart brought both unapologetically to SportsCenter—blending sharp analysis, pop culture and swagger in a way that spoke directly to a new generation of fans.”
The network continued in its announcement: “As the film recounts, Stuart’s impact extended far beyond the newsroom. He bridged sports and culture, made SportsCenter must-watch television and became a symbol of courage through his public battle with cancer—culminating in his unforgettable ESPYS speech that reminded viewers, ‘You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the manner in which you live.’”
I’m covering the documentary for several reasons, not the least of which because I learned by watching Boo-Yah that Scott had a disability. He coped with a rare visual condition called keratoconus, the effects of which were compounded by an eye injury sustained when a football hit him in the face during a New York Jets mini-camp in 2002. Upon recovering, he wore glasses and, according to the documentary, held his stat sheets super close to his face—I can relate—and struggled to read the teleprompter.
Scott was a mainstay of my sports-watching life; he indeed was my favorite SportsCenter personality. Beyond the disability angle, which I obviously am drawn towards, I feel like there are a lot of professional parallels to Scott’s tenaciousness in getting work (and thus respect) as a journalist from a marginalized community. I of course didn’t know Scott, but I definitely can empathize with his belief that he had to prove himself worthy in an industry where 99.9% of people don’t look like you. Even as I approach my own 13-year anniversary this coming May, with all that I’ve accomplished in tech media over the past decade-and-a-half, I continually feel the pressure to prove my worth over and over again—despite what friends and peers tell me about my extensively impressive résumé. Like Scott, I’m a minority in journalism—arguably the minority’s minority group—and constantly feel like, as Scott’s daughters recount at one point in the film, I must “work twice as hard to get half as much.” We’ve seen lots of success, but only after we’ve kicked down doors at every turn to procure our plaudits.
Scott made it to ESPN. Will I ever make it to ABC News or NBC News or The Gray Lady?
As a related aside, the ESPN app on tvOS is delightful—so much so, it’s in my Top Shelf.
Anyway, I highly suggest sitting down to watch Boo-Yah. It’s well worth your time.
