Every Day I Fight by Stuart Scott with Larry Platt

Every Day I Fight by Stuart Scott with Larry Platt

                There is a commercial for SportsCenter that always plays in my mind when I think of Stuart Scott. It’s him and Scott Van Pelt, they’re in suits hyping each other up, acting like they are about to run out on the field instead of on to a set. Right before their segment starts they rip off their suits, that breakaway like basketball warm-ups, to reveal their real suits. They walk on to the set, have their seats and begin their segment. I loved it. It’s still one of my favorite commercials of all time and they are both hilarious. When I think back on Stuart Scott and the energy and fun he had doing his job I always remember that commercial. I don’t remember the first time I ever watched him on SportsCenter. He just always felt like a familiar face. He was always at the NBA playoffs and Monday Night Football. When I wasn’t constantly seeing his face, I realized that the worst may be coming. When I turned to ESPN on January 4^th and heard of his passing I caught my breath. I reacted in a way that I hadn’t been expecting. Tears started to swell in my eyes. I couldn’t think of anything to say besides “wow” all day when anyone mentioned it to me. I watched each tribute as they came and was simply stunned. I didn’t find out about this memoir until right before its release and knew I had to have it. His story would always live on through his own words and I wanted to read what he had to say.

                Every Day I Fight is a passionate memoir written by a man passionate about life, his daughters, his job, and sports. Stuart talks about his family and upbringing in North Carolina as the last of four children. He explains his love of sports and being physical as a young child, a love that never faded as he got older. He describes the moment he realized he wanted to go into broadcasting and his fight through rejection after rejection. He talks about meeting his wife and the two children they had together. Stuart talked about being a black man working at the predominantly white ESPN. He was open and honest about keeping his integrity and wanting to honestly represent himself. He talked about the support he received by the executives at ESPN who were supportive of him and his battle with cancer. Stuart described what life was like having cancer. He talked of his earlier eye troubles and the many corrective surgeries he had from his teenage years. Stuart detailed the fight to live, survive cancer and be there for his daughters.

                I thoroughly enjoyed reading Every Day I Fight. It was beautifully narrated and Stuart’s candor and humor was obvious throughout the pages. But so was his pain. There were so many heart-wrenching moments throughout this memoir: from the injuries to his eyes, the chemotherapy treatments and the way he spoke about his daughters. When I started reading this memoir it felt like a love letter to his daughters. I felt like he put his thoughts on paper so they would know how much he loved them and that he was fighting for them. His daughters were at the core of everything. Battling cancer wasn’t easy but he fought like hell to live every day, working out after chemo, traveling when he could and continuing to work at job that he loved. Passionate. I could use that word and that word alone to review this book. It was amazing. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.