|
|
|
||
 |
|||
|
|
|
ESPN NETWORK:
ESPN.COM | NFL.COM | NBA.COM | NASCAR | NHL.COM | ABCSPORTS | FANTASY | STORE | INSIDER
|
|
|
|
|
|
Roberts: Stewart showed his courage in reaching out to others By Jimmy Roberts Special to ESPN Golf Online October 29 7:55pm ET | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Editor's note: Jimmy Roberts covers a variety of events for ESPN, including golf. He was assigned to cover Payne Stewart's funeral for the network. These were some of his thoughts the night before Friday's services: This is about to be something new for me. I started working around big-time sports 20 years ago as a go-fer at ABC Sports. Since then, everything has fit neatly into one box or another. Despite my proximity to so many newsworthy events, my position was always clear: that of an outsider, an observer. It was easy to be excited ... not difficult to be detached.
But where I'm going now ... to a memorial service for Payne Stewart ... fills me with confusing thoughts. He was not my friend, but it's hard to think of him as just one of the subjects I cover. For seven years now, I have left my family for weeks at a time and spent my days -- and sometimes evenings -- with people like Payne Stewart. I actually didn't like him at first. He wasn't very nice ... especially to a new guy on the beat. But he changed -- I'm sure I did too -- and we started to fashion some type of uncertain relationship based on the fact that we seemed to run into each other a lot. There were landmarks along the way. At the 1996 PGA Championship, the tour wives hosted a benefit to premiere the film "Tin Cup." I sat with Payne and Tracey Stewart -- only admitted to the gala because I had a small part in the film -- and took an unrelenting ribbing when my scene came on. At the time Payne was going through an emotional epiphany of sorts. He had endured a long winless streak that reintroduced him to the concept of humility. He worked hard to do right by people he might have wronged before. I think I was one of them -- although it wasn't personal -- if that makes sense. It was more about him than about me, which I guess is the way it's supposed to be: It's more about the giving than whom it is being given to. The last personal memory I have of Payne Stewart is from Pinehurst. Not the ending, but the beginning. Before the tournament started. He invited me to walk with him during a practice round on the Sunday before the opening round. What an education I got. He made me look smart with all he told me. When I heard the news about the crash, it shook me. He was five days younger than me, and I thought about the ways our lives had occasionally intersected over the past few years. On Friday, I'll be in the press gallery. I'll report on William Payne Stewart's passing. It will have nothing to do with me or my life. As I write this Thursday night, I am sad. I will miss him as someone to cover. I will remember him as someone who did something unheard of for a sports celebrity in this age: recognize the error of his ways and set out to do something about it. I hope his lesson is not lost on any of us. Excuse me now ... I have to go to work.
|
Stewart plane was traveling 600 mph at impact Estes pays tribute to Stewart with 15-foot drive Stewart's legacy: More than just clothes made the man
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||