May 29, 2002 - Stuart Scott, an Orlando sportscaster alum who has "boo-yahed" his way to ESPN popularity, comes back to SportsCenter after a gut-wrenching two-month layoff. Next week he'll cover the NBA Finals and seem -- to use another of his catchphrases -- "as cool as the other side of the pillow."
Scott returns humbled after nearly losing a dear friend who has seen him through the last 36 years.
His left eye.
Reading a bill for a pizza he had ordered on Tuesday was still difficult. He has no idea what following the rolling words on a teleprompter will be like.
On April 3, Scott saw his life as a sportscaster flash before his eye.
One minute he was working out with some New York Jets. The next he was dazed, frightened and hearing the team ophthalmologist say that he needed emergency surgery.
Scott was preparing a three-part series on what it would be like to go through an NFL minicamp.
"It was no joke, not a George Plimpton thing," he said, referring to the writer who authored a daffy first-person account of playing quarterback with the Detroit Lions in the mid-'60s.
Scott, 36, is no pancaked pretty boy. He's a former prep football star and semi-pro player. He caught passes, ran a 4.6 40 and performed agility drills with the Jets. He then lined up with Laveranues Coles, Curtis Martin and other players in front of a high-powered machine that flings footballs.
Scott doesn't remember how it happened. But the point of a launched football struck him in the left eye, splitting his cornea and lens.
