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News Wed Aug 27 2008
The Man We Loved To Hate
Gotta say, the most interesting aspect of the whole Jay Mariotti resignation is the almost complete rejoicing by members of the reading public whose opinions on the former Sun-Times columnist range from vague indifference to his presence to outright revulsion and an unspoken desire to dance the electric slide on his grave.
How he remained here for more than 17 years with this kind of opinion swirling around outside of his workplace (and sometimes inside) is either a testament to his ability to generate interest of ANY kind or the Sun-Times' refusal to admit a mistake. Either way, he managed to irk nearly everyone on the Chicago sports scene, from local icon Mike Ditka to Ozzie Guillen, who Mariotti ripped so thoroughly that Guillen was reduced to referring to Mariotti with a homosexual slur, which I guess that counts for something.
In the end, in a kind of weird twist, it wasn't the outside forces that hastened Mariotti's departure but possibly inside forces. As noted here previously, Mariotti wasn't exactly buddy-buddy with his fellow S-T sports department co-workers, most notably the White Sox beat writers and columnist Rick Telander. According to reports, it was a run-in with management over who'd get to write a column, he or Telander, regarding Barack Obama and his comment on Cubs fans that prompted him to head for the door. In parting, Mariotti declared newspapers dead and that online was the way for him to go.
(Note to Jay: Your arch-enemy and former co-biggest-name-in-Chicago-sports-media Mike North is trying the online thing too. How's that working for him?)
So while it's correct to praise his way with words and his ability to remain controversial (at the risk of being a hypocrite, which his both-sides-of-the-fence stances on many subjects made him), it's pretty clear that even with all of that, he won't be missed by very many. Which I guess is sort of controversial in itself.
Jeff / August 28, 2008 1:16 PM
Nice, smart commentary. I myself loathed Mariotti, but he had that train-wreck kind of thing going. Impossible to look away from. Now, though, I'm happy that his Big Bucket of Negative will be somewhere else, somewhere I don't have to look at it.