Jay Mariotti...Graceful as Always
"I like going to monster truck rallies, dressing up for Golden Corrall, and beating the **** out of my wife."For those of us who hate the negative hackdom that's ESPN's favorite reading material nowadays, this week has been pretty good as Jay Mariotti quit the Chicago Sun-Times after 17 years. Mariotti told the Chicago Tribune he quit because he went to Beijing and saw all the bloggers there, and realized print media was dying. "To see what has happened in this business. … I don't want to go down with it," he said.

Of course, other sources are saying he quit because he wanted to write about Barack Obama, but Rick Telander beat him to it. So he threw a fit, told everyone he quit, then tried to get back inside the building to shoot his TV show.

Whatever the reason, no doubt Mariotti expected all types of outrage of the loss of his column. Instead, the response has been extremely positive for it, including this ad on the front page of the Sun-Times today:

Sports fan Pete Gaines had enough of Jay Mariotti and quit reading the paper. When he heard Mariotti was gone, he quickly came back. You can too. For home delivery call 888-84-TIMES | PAGES 72-73

Reader's letters have been mostly supportive of his departure. His own Editor-in-Chief released a statement that "We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days." Although I don't watch Around the Horn, I've heard he's been taking a lot of dirt for being unemployed at the moment.

Even one of the Sun-Times most famous columnists took the time to let Mariotti know how small he is:

On your way out, don't let the door bang you on the ***.

Your former colleague,

Roger Ebert

You're probably wondering why so many of us are so overjoyed as Mariotti watches his career go down in flames. To be honest, it goes beyond the usual schadenfreud. Mr. Mariotti is a member of that segment of the sports media who follow, "A loud argument is better than a good argument." ESPN, as well as other media outlets, have subscribed fully to this concept. That's why most of the analysts at ESPN are usually spending their time yelling instead of actually putting together a coherent statement. The people who think that they can just show up and be relevant just because we know their name, then constantly get on our nerves as we eagerly change the channel. The sports guy who's like the guy you try to talk politics to, until you realize all he did was listen to Rush for three hours today, and he just repeats those same takes over and over and over. Mariotti's the reason sports blogs have become so popular: tired schtick and old opinions that no one cares about anymore

Mariotti's departure, or the landslide applause it's received, gives us all hope that thoughtless, useless, undeserving media figures might finally get what's coming to them (I'm looking at you, Micheal Waltrip). Hope Jay (and a few more of his colleagues) enjoys his new job posting hack work on Blogspot somewhere.
Posted: 8/28/2008 9:27:10 PM
Comments:
Interesting.
Being an American living in Switzerland gives me access to some interesting points of view.
I was without access to any North American sports for quite a while, and just recently switched to digital. One thing I noticed and many of my Swiss friends agree with (they are quite passionate about the NHL) is that it seems we are being screamed at when watching an either British or American sports casting. We understand getting caught up in the moment, but when the moment doesn't exist do to the play on the field, cour... it doesn't mean we need the announcer to make one up. Some parts of sport are down right boring. Just let it be don't insult me by trying to make more than it is.
Posted On: 9/8/2008 9:16:28 AM

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