30 for 30 review: ‘Boo-Yah: A Portrait of Stuart Scott’ delivers nostalgia, intimacy, and tragedy

Director: Andre Gaines

Length: 79 minutes without commercials (airing in a 90-minute window with commercials)

Airs: Tuesday, December 10, 2025, at 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. Streaming on the ESPN app

Most Similar To: Run Ricky Run, Mike and the Mad Dog

Grade/Ranking: Among the Top 40 out of 134 installments to date, which I’d give a B+  on my 30 for 30 grading curve.

Review:  From time to time, 30 for 30 has been unafraid to turn its focus away from actual sports to instead focus inward on sports media.  Bill Walton, Mike Francesa, Chris Russo, Jimmy the Greek, and the rise and fall of the XFL all scratch an itch that we very much enjoy over here. It’s been a bit odd to see those installments under the 30 for 30 brand while other documentaries about Lee Corso and Dick Vitale have not been included in the 30 for 30 universe, but that’s another conversation.

This sports media-centric installment rises above most 30 for 30s and is potentially the best to date, with a very even-keeled storytelling approach that leans into nostalgia, intimacy, and tragedy.

With Scott’s passing in 2015, ‘Boo-Yah’ benefits greatly from access to an extensive amount of home videos Scott took of himself and his family. Older sports fans will remember Scott and his pioneering, energetic, and unique style on ESPN, one that ruffled many feathers throughout his time at the network.

Scott’s home videos peel back a layer of intimacy behind the familiar face many of us grew up with and connected with on television. The creative decision to end the film with a self-recorded clip of Scott talking to the camera decades before his passing is deliberate and will evoke tears for many. Hard to watch, the message is clear: Scott died too soon, had much more to give, and his early death was simply tragic and unfair.

Director Andre Gaines did a great job balancing archival footage of Scott on-air, the aforementioned home footage, and extensive new interviews with his family, friends, and coworkers.

The film touches on Scott’s struggles with being accepted for approaching his job as his authentic self, rather than contorting himself into the preexisting style and delivery that his bosses and a segment of viewers were more comfortable with. ‘Boo-Yah’ indeed tells that story, one that includes hate mail, slurs, and bosses who clearly didn’t feel Scott was a fit with what ESPN was doing, or was comfortable with at the time.

A minor nitpick is that Gaines and/or ESPN seemed to lean away from specificity on this issue, something an oral history on The Ringer was less touchy about.

Mary Frances Bonvini: I don’t remember exactly which executive it was. But I remember standing in the hallway with [Stuart] and the executive was telling him, “I don’t understand what you’re doing and I don’t understand what you’re trying to express. I don’t even really understand some of the words you’re saying.”

…

John Skipper, former ESPN executive: You’ll find that everybody will tell you they were on the side of encouraging Stuart to do what he did. Half of ’em are lying.

Susan Scott: Norby [Williamson] wrote him up. He challenged his scripts. It was awful. People really don’t know how awful it was. … Stuart was desperately frustrated.

Norby Williamson, ESPN executive: Stuart Scott is a top-five on-air talent in ESPN history and I was honored and grateful to call him a friend and colleague. … We challenged each other, encouraged each other, and learned from each other. Like millions of sports fans, I miss him.

Ultimately, Scott persevered and rose to the highest peaks at ESPN, which we learn came at the cost of his personal life. Gaines chronicles his final chapters well as Scott tries to find peace, health, and balance in his final years.

Scott’s unique story and tragic passing are an authentic human story, one devoid of team or league PR meant to further bond fans with a team or sport, to juice ratings, or to sell tickets and merchandise. It’s a throwback to 30 for 30’s origins, when stories were king, storytelling was paramount, and people would seek out these installments and discuss them with importance and reliability.

Like Stuart Scott himself, ‘Boo-Yah’, shines bright and makes us nostalgic for a particular time in sports media, which can serve as Scott’s career at ESPN, or perhaps when 30 for 30 released more than three installments a year, many of which were as rich with storytelling and emotion as this installment.