Monday Lineup: Jay Harris accepts NFLPA award for Stuart Scott PLUS: 8 ESPN weekend moments

DeMaurice Smith and Vince Lombardi II present the NFLPA Georgetown Lombardi Award to Jay Harris, who accepted the award on Stuart Scott’s behalf. The NFL Players Association Georgetown Lombardi Award was established to honor a leader in the sports industry whose life and family have been touched by cancer, and who encourages cancer research, prevention and treatment through awareness and philanthropy. (Lisa Helfert/Georgetown University)

Jay Harris gave his speech before he accepted the NFLPA Georgetown Lombardi Award on Stuart Scott’s behalf. (Lisa Helfert/Georgetown University)

DeMaurice Smith spoke about why Stuart Scott is deserving of the NFLPA Georgetown Lombardi Award. (Lisa Helfert/Georgetown University)

(l to r) Paul Schweitzer and Jill Kirkpatrick, gala co-chairs; Jay Harris and his wife Stephanie; DeMaurice Smith, the gala’s honorary co-chair and NFLPA executive director. (Lisa Helfert/Georgetown University)

EDITOR’S NOTE: On Saturday in Washington, D.C., SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott was honored with the NFL Players Association Georgetown Lombardi Award during the 28th Annual Lombardi Gala.

“We honor Stuart tonight, not because he has cancer, we honor Stuart tonight because of his tenacity and his fight against a disease that he was diagnosed with in 2007 and came back in 2011,” said NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith. “And we honor Stuart because he is putting up a fight because he does not want to be separated from his daughters due to something called cancer. We honor Stuart because he means so much about our fight, our dedication to rid our community of this disease.”

Accepting on Scott’s behalf was friend and fellow SportsCenter anchor Jay Harris.

“We at ESPN continue to be inspired by him, and the way he approaches his life, the way he approaches his battle, the way he approaches his work,” Harris said. “For my friend Stuart Scott, I say again, thank you very much.”

Here, Harris shares brief thoughts on the evening:

I hope this doesn’t sound cliche, but if I could have bottled up the energy and love inside the ballroom at the Washington, D.C. Hilton Saturday night, it would power the SportsCenter set for weeks. And it was all directed at one guy: Stuart Scott.

Accepting his NFLPA Georgetown Lombardi Award for him was both an honor and a privilege. Any nerves I felt were trumped by gratitude and appreciation for all Stuart has done throughout his career. It takes so much courage to be yourself, especially on television for the entire world to see.

Or as Stu likes to say, “do you.”

But as we’ve seen, Stuart is not lacking courage. And we are all the better for it.

Now, some of what you may have missed over the weekend.

1. GameDay heads to Baton Rouge this coming Saturday – and this will be a familiar sight at LSU for the visiting Ole Miss Rebels.

2. ESPN.com’s Chris Ramsay, son of Basketball Hall Of Famer and former NBA analyst Jack Ramsay, attended ceremonies in Portland, Ore. honoring his late father.

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8. Expecting this to get some viral attention today

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Just watched the race on tv. Wow, that was awesome and the ESPN coverage was excellent! Glad it wasn't a dream.

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) October 20, 2014

Andy Hall, Josh Krulewitz, David Scott, Sheldon Spencer and Dan Quinn contributed to this post