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SALT LAKE CITY — Kenneth Scott wants to be your friend.
Spend five minutes with the senior wide receiver and you'd believe he was one of your best friends. And that's exactly what he's hoping to happen. His upbeat, charismatic approach to life and perpetual smile makes life seem less troublesome or serious — someone always has it worse.
"I try to make everybody feel genuine about themself," he said. "That’s just something about me, that I’m always friendly with everybody.”
On the field, there's few as dedicated as Scott in his approach to "working on my craft." Whether it's going over the various route structures until they become second nature or meticulously working on his footwork to maximize his receiving role, Scott is all business.
Until he's not.
On the surface, Scott is a regular college student working through the pressures of homework, a social life and preparing for an eventual career. Football, however, is something he happens to excel in and an avenue that could further an already charitable life. How far football takes him doesn't necessarily concern him long-term, though. Instead, it's his love of others often less fortunate than him that brings out his true character and his true passion.
I've always wanted to counsel juvenile kids — the kids that are in bad situations — and be a lending hand to help them get to a positive situation and help them out.
–Kenneth Scott
"I’ve always wanted to counsel juvenile kids — the kids that are in bad situations — and be a lending hand to help them get to a positive situation and help them out," he confides.
It's a declaration coming from a genuine place and a topic that elicits more passion from him than when he's talking about football, if such a thing is possible. It's the kids who were bullied growing up, he said, that resonate most with him — a group of people he believes needs some encouragement in life.
"The people that used to get bullied, I used to be a friend to them and be like, ‘you’re good; don’t worry about it.’ I would befriend them and stuff. When I was younger it really touched me a lot because I hated when people were disrespected or didn’t show another the appreciation that they deserve. I’m all about equality; I give everybody respect.
"This sounds probably corny, but if I can go around and make 10 people smile a day then I’ve done my job as a person," he adds. "That’s just the type of person I am."
Scott loves his persona of the Dark Knight — a symbol for those looking for hope and a way for a better, happier life. His role is representative in a scene in “Batman Begins” as Bruce Wayne tells Alfred Pennyworth his reasoning for putting on the mask.
“As a man, I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed; but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.”
Scott sees his position as a football player as that of a symbol in some part, recognizing the spotlight that follows him as not a burden but an opportunity to be a role model to those around him.
“A lot of people look up to me, the coaches always tell me that. I have a magnifying glass on me,” Scott said. “They tell me a lot of people are looking at me, so I just try to be the best role model I can be. I stumbled across a lot of stuff when I was younger; that’s what helped me grow to the person that I am now.”
Much of Scott’s passion in life is embodied in his love of writing and singing, an outlet he uses to share his personal feelings in a way that just telling a person can’t convey.
“It’s a little outlet I do on my downtime away from football,” he said. “I just love to write. Instead of talking to people about my feelings, I just create beats and put it on a song. When I was younger I used to always bottle a lot of things up. I used to just be in my room creating stuff.”
Scott’s grandmother would tell him as a kid that she thought he would write a novel someday because he was always writing something. But his love for poetry and the emotions that could be conveyed through writing led Scott to music — a way for others to connect, or to “walk in my shoes.”
“I love different ways of a personal view when I’m trying to talk about trying to put people into my shoes,” he said, speaking about his approach to the music he writes, sings/raps and produces. “I always do my research on the artists nowadays, and the best artists are the ones that can make you feel that they’re in a situation that you’re in — that they can feel at that moment. That’s basically what I try to do: make people feel the moments that I’ve been through.”
Whatever the medium, Scott hopes to convey his emotions or offer a helping hand in a way that helps others believe in themselves.
“They can lock you down and confine you, but that’s one thing they can’t take away is how you view yourself and the happiness you bring to yourself.”
