Jay Mariotti

Jay Mariotti (born June 22, 1959 ) is a former sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and former panelist on the ESPN show Around the Horn. He and Woody Paige remain the two best contestants in the history of the game show.

Life and career
Mariotti was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended Ohio University. He has appeared as a panelist on Around the Horn and has guest hosted Pardon the Interruption. Prior to his work with ESPN, he co-hosted a daily sports talk radio program on One on One Sports/Sporting News Radio.

Mariotti is a long time sports columnist, starting with The Detroit News in the early 1980s. He moved to The Denver Post in the late 1980s, where he met Woody Paige, a fellow regular panelist on Around the Horn. Mariotti and Paige were said to have been in a long-running feud during their time together in Denver, which eventually resulted in Mariotti leaving the Post for the paper's then rival, the Rocky Mountain News; the rivalry was something that was mentioned at times in the early episodes of Around the Horn. Both have stated that the feud is over and the rivalry between them is now a friendly one. Mariotti left Denver and joined the Chicago Sun-Times in 1991, staying with the paper until 2008.

Mariotti made his writing debut for AOL Sports (now FanHouse) on January 5, 2009 where he shared his views about sports and sports personalities. In 2010, he left Chicago and relocated to Los Angeles, where he's currently based.

Sun-Times resignation
On August 26, 2008, Mariotti announced that he was resigning from the Chicago Sun-Times after writing for them for 17 years. He stated his choice was heavily weighted on the fact that while covering the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing that he saw more writers for websites covering the Games and a smaller presence of newspapers, giving him the opinion that writing for a website was "what the future holds." Mariotti's criticism of the newspaper industry and his resignation from the newspaper prompted a public rebuttal from fellow Sun-Times employee and movie critic Roger Ebert, who defended the newspaper business and criticized Mariotti's penchant for writing sensationalist columns during his time there.

Arrest
On August 21, 2010, Mariotti was arrested in Los Angeles and booked on suspicion of a felony after a domestic altercation with his girlfriend. AOL suspended Mariotti on August 26. On September 13, Los Angeles city prosecutors charged Mariotti with seven misdemeanors in connection with the domestic disturbance. Mariotti's attorney called the allegations "inaccurate and sensationalized." She went on to say, "We are confident that the facts will show the complainant was extremely intoxicated that night and abusive toward Mr. Mariotti." On September 30, Marriotti pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery count and has been sentenced to 3 years probation and community service. ESPN has chosen not to use Mariotti on air since his arrest and indicated it had no plans to do so. On February 10, 2013, Jay Mariotti announced that he was returning to ESPN to work on "a freelance storytelling” assignment.

On May 11, 2011, Mariotti pleaded not guilty to three felonies—stalking, domestic violence and assault—after he confronted his ex-girlfriend the same day a court ordered him to stay away from her, according to prosecutors. He was also charged with two misdemeanor counts of disobeying a court order. In addition to confronting his ex-girlfriend at a restaurant Sept. 30—the day he pleaded no contest to one count of misdemeanor domestic violence—prosecutors said he argued with his former girlfriend again outside of a Venice restaurant April 15. He allegedly pulled a chunk of her hair-extensions out, grabbed her cellphone, shouted at her, and ordered that she get plastic surgery because she was not satisfactory to his demands as a high profile sports writer and general celebrity, prosecutors said. On September 13, 2011, Mariotti pleaded no contest to stalking and assaulting his ex-girlfriend. With the plea deal, Mariotti must undergo a year of counseling and 90 days of community service. He was sentenced to five years probation, but is eligible to have that time reduced beginning in 2014.