Every Day I Fight Quotes

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the manner in which you live.” His words were as raw, honest, and powerful as the man himself.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“You know what I’ve never done at a sporting event? Boo. I don’t get the whole idea of booing. You’re booing someone because they just failed at something? Seriously? Do you know how hard it is to do what they’re doing? That they’re among the best in the world at what they do?”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Once you start questioning the bad stuff that comes your way, you have to start questioning the good—and I wouldn’t trade the good for anything.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Prayer is an interesting thing. I’m not a loud God Squad guy; when guys imply in interviews that the Lord made them juke that defender and score that touchdown, it tends to rub me wrong. I pray, but I pray for His will to be done—not mine. I acknowledge in every prayer that what I want may not be what He wants.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“So often, growing up is about conforming to labels: There are the jocks, the nerds, the brainiacs. We never thought like that. That”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“In football, as in life, the hits you don’t see coming are the ones that do the most damage.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Remember during the coverage of Hurricane Katrina, those images of people on their roofs while makeshift boats full of people sailed by? Well, this is my boat-people analogy. We’ve been flooded and I’m in a boat that’s gliding by everyone I know on top of those roofs. But my boat only holds fifteen people. I got my girls, my family, my closest friends. When your boat is full, it’s not like you’re saying to everyone else on those roofs, “I don’t care about you.” It’s just that these are my boat people and I’ve gotta save them. Because they’re in the fight with me. This is crucial: When you take on cancer, you’re not alone. Of course, that’s not how it feels when you first hear those words: “You have cancer.” At that moment, you feel more alone than you’ve ever been. You’re standing in place, numb, and the world is rushing by.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“know people don’t know what to say, so they just talk to fill the awkward silence and stuff comes out. They don’t mean to say the wrong thing. But, listen, y’all: You don’t have to say anything at all. Just wrap your arms around me and squeeze. A hug speaks volumes. That’s what I do when I meet someone who is also in the fight. I grab on and don’t let go. Or just say, “I’m really sorry you’re going through this.” That’s all, man. It ain’t hard if you keep it simple and real.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Robin and I would talk about how those who weren’t in CancerWorld didn’t get it. “Yeah,” I remember Robin saying, “everyone wants to know how you’re doing, and they don’t get that you’ll reach out to the people you want to reach out to.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“I’ve been criticized for being too chummy with and soft on athletes. That critique is born of a very particular type of journalism: one in which predominantly white, middle-aged writers and broadcasters paternalistically judge young, often black, athletes. I’ll ask tough questions, if need be. But they’ll be in service of explaining rather than judging. The viewer can then judge for him- or herself.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“SOME YEARS AGO, I read the following quote from Spike Lee and thought instantly of my time at UNC: “It comes down to this,” he said. “Black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it’s been a quest since then to define who we are.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“I’m not trying to “Kumbaya” you. My daughters are teenagers, man. Sydni is in perpetual eye-roll mode and Taelor is a typical college student; she’ll call for advice or to ask for money or to share a joke—only, of course, not as often as her needy Dad wishes she would. Teenage girls are a whole ’nother thing. They get angry with me, annoyed, embarrassed. Friends tell me they’ll come around. Teenage girls always come around to their dad eventually. But that well-meaning advice strikes to the heart of my fear. I don’t have “eventually.” The truth is, I’m not as afraid of dying as I am of not being here for my daughters’ aha moment. I’m on the clock and I want to be here when they get it—when they get what I got about my dad: that all the stuff he did that ticked me off? He did that for me.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“little over a year ago, I got some heat for something I tweeted: “True racism is group w majority/economic/political power discriminating against others . . . Blacks/Hispanics can be ANGRY/RUDE but not ‘Racist.’” Man, you can guess how that went over. But I stand by it. Racism is the institutional manifestation of prejudice. Black people can be prejudiced and ignorant, yes, but since blacks by and large don’t control our institutions, they don’t have the power to act on those impulses, to subjugate others. This is something I learned forty years ago in Winston-Salem. I don’t care if someone—white or black—doesn’t like me because of what I look like. If they can act on that dislike in a way that harms me, then we’ve got a problem.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“When Taelor competed in dance and Sydni in soccer, I would tell them, “Nerves are good.” What are nerves, after all? They’re just energy.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Ray Scott was a federal postal inspector—the dude carried a gun and cuffs; I’d grow muscles when the neighborhood kids would see him. He promised his four kids that he’d pay our college tuition if we maintained a 2.0 grade point average. After my sophomore year, I was skating along with a 2.7. Dad said he was restructuring our deal—he’d only pay if I kept a 3.0 or better. “That’s crap,” I said. That wasn’t the deal. It wasn’t fair—a common refrain from my teenagers today. But then something happened: In the fall of my junior year, I was heavily involved with my fraternity, I played club football, and I posted a 3.2 GPA. The next semester, I upped that to 3.6. The following one, 3.4. I remained pissed until years later, when it dawned on me: Dad knew I was better than a 2.7 student. And he knew I needed to be pushed. Funny, isn’t it, how much smarter our dads are when we get older?”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Something had been instilled in me that wasn’t going to let the irrational anger of strangers make me doubt my own identity.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Being on a plane . . . and hearing a baby crying. That’s the sound of life, man. Moms: Stop apologizing for your kid crying—he or she has a right to be there. I love to revel in the beauty of a baby’s cry.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“you.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Say what you will about Lance Armstrong—I think he did whatever everybody else in his sport was doing, and that it shouldn’t tarnish his accomplishments on a bike—but what is undeniable is that here was a world-class athlete who got cancer in his brain and in his nutsack. And he basically said, “Screw that. I’m getting off this table.” I dig that. I played sports all my life and I dig that attitude. Okay, you’re hurting? Get up anyway.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the manner in which you live.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“I learned that what I thought was appendicitis was actually a rare form of cancer, was . . . fear.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight

“Our cool factor went off the charts with Stu roaming the halls and performing “Rapper’s Delight” on karaoke nights. He brought a spirit and a style that had never been seen, never been felt before, at ESPN.”
― Stuart Scott, Every Day I Fight