ESPN's Jay Mariotti Done At "Around The Horn?" Photo Of Girlfriend Posted

Jay Mariotti and Girlfriend (?) (Deadspin.com)

UPDATE: Mariotti gets deal, avoids jail.

UPDATE: Court date pushed back to October 1st.

ESPN's Personality Jay Mariotti of Around The Horn was arrested on Saturday, August 21st on suspicion of domestic abuse after an altercation with a woman described as his girlfriend that with an argument at a club in Santa Monica, California and then ended with Jay's reportedly violent confrontation at her Venice Beach apartment.

Mariotti posted bail and was immediately tossed into the court of public opinion as being a hypocrite for allegedly doing to his lady friend what he used ESPN and print publications to take time to flame some male athletes for doing: hitting a woman.

In the wake of that event, Jay Mariotti was suspended from his duties as a columnist at AOL Fanhouse, and now it appears he finally may be done on Around The Horn, according to sports radio personality Ben Maller.

On top of that the blog Deadspin.com published a photo of the woman that is claimed to be his girlfriend and a text of an eyewitness account that, if true, could be permanently damaging to Mariotti.

ESPN's Jay Mariotti Done At Around The Horn?

Ben Maller, who at one point was an ESPN radio personality, and so has connections at the place Dan Patrick refers to as "The Mothership," says that a source told him Mariotti is "done" on Around The Horn. Maller says ESPN has not confirmed or denied the rumor. Also, he reports that few if anyone anything good to say about him on or off the record. It's not clear if he is referring to ESPN to around the sports media industry.

Photo of Jay Mariotti And Girlfriend Posted

Deadspin posted this photo of Jay Mariotti and his alleged Girlfriend that was taken by an alleged eyewitness who reportedly called the police to report the incident. What's interesting is that someone actually took the photo at that time. In other words, of all of the occasions to take a photo of Jay and his girlfriend, why at that time?

Deadspin also has a rather chilling account by the same eyewitness of the events leading up to Jay's eventual arrest. Now, it's not clear if he was the person who also took the photo of Jay and his Girlfriend. The Eyewitness said that he was parked to pick up his girlfriend at The Air Apartment Complex, at the corner of Rose Avenue and Ocean Front Walk. He called the police at 3:13 AM Saturday, August 21st. This is what he told Deadspin.com:

I was down there, outside across the street in my car picking up a girl at the end of the night. While i waited i saw a couple having an argument. I first thought it was a bad blind date that was having a kiss goodbye stalemate...but as i watched it unfold I could tell something bad was going to go down. It got heated fast. He was boxing her out every time she tried to get around him. He was d-ing her up like Gary Payton. He mirrored every side step she made. When my girl got in the car i told her we had to wait to make sure he didn't do anything to the woman. I honked my horn at one point as to say "Hey someone is here watching you" as an escalation deterrent and once that didn't work i was pretty sure the cops were going to be needed.

"She punched her code to get into the lobby of her building...and when she did that he fired the door open and followed her in..and that's when it began. Lucky for me her lobby was a giant glass one so i could continue to see everything that was going on when they went inside.

She sat on a couch and he grabbed her by the hair and whipped her around a bit — ripped something out of her ear and shoved her around. With those actions I told my girl to call the cops and i went to the trunk of my cart to get my black wiffle ball bat to try and put the fear of god in him...but before i could do so he fired her into the elevator and they disappeared. Being the resourceful guy I am, I went up to the door and found out what floor they stopped at so i could relay that info to the cops. I'll tell you this much. the guy has a serious rage problem...[H]e was ripping stuff off the walls and firing it in the lobby too. some papers or something. i guess to show how macho he was.

That, if even a little true, is damaging to Mariotti and could figure prominently in his court case.

ESPN's Around The Horn talks about Jay Mariotti

On Monday, ESPN's Around The Horn personalities used ay Mariotti's situation to build up some buzz about the show. Here's the video from that television event called "It's Out Of Bounds":



While not one of them was willing to throw Jay under the bus entirely, they did express regret that the situation happened to him. Woody Paige said it best: we all live in glass houses.  But talk about eating one of your own!  ESPN waisted little time in using Jay's issue as a buzz generator for the show he was on!  I don't know what to call it, but the term classless does enter my thoughts.

Stay tuned.