ESPN's Jay Mariotti May Be Done After Domestic Violence Arrest

Earlier it was reported that ESPN Personality Jay Marrioti was arrested early Saturday morning and charged with "suspicion of felony domestic assault" after an argument with his girlfriend that was said to have started at a nightclub and continued at Mariotti's apartment.

The 51-year old former Chicago Sun Times Sports Columnist was jailed and released on a $50,000 bond. That, after police reportedly found "cuts and bruises" on his girlfriend's body.

According to the LA Times, Mariotti allegedly got upset after he believed his girlfriend was flirting with another man at a club in Santa Monica. (To which, it must be said, Mariotti, who must have been drinking at the time, could have always just said "Ok. I'll dance with someone else," or something like that. The best option is always to keep options open, rather that what he allegedly did.)

The LA Times goes on to explain that once Mariotti and his girlfriend got into his apartment, he allegedly started pushing and shoving her.

Sources say Jay Mariotti done at ESPN

After this, and given the post-controversy history of recent ESPN personalities, a number of sources say Jay Mariotti is done at ESPN after this scandal. One is always innocent until proven guilty, so ESPN is reportedly taking a wait-and-see position, which is smart. But if the police report, as explained by the LA Times, holds, it's hard to see how Jay Mariotti keeps his job, let alone launch the planned NBA Basketball morning show with Jalen Rose.

SPORTSSbyBROOKS paints Mariotti as hypocrite

The weblog SPORTSbyBROOKS and its readers have been particularly hard on Jay Mariotti in the wake of the domestic abuse arrest.

The popular sports blog site has a post that lists the various times Jay has crawled all over athletes like Lawrence Phillips (who beat his girlfriend while a star Nebraska running back), and Baseball's Albert Belle (who was charged with domestic abuse in 1998).

In fact, SPORTSbyBROOKS went all the way back to 1996 in chronicling 15 years of comments by Jay Mariotti, throwing prominent athletes under the bus for domestic abuse charges.

It's a good read. Click here to see it.

ESPN Canned Steve Phillips, others

ESPN has a history of throwing out scandalous personalities, the most recent example being Steve Phillips in 2009 after his in-office and out affair with ESPN Associate Producer Brook Hundley. Before that it was ESPN Football Analyst Sean Salisbury, and after he admitted to sending a photo of his private via cellphone to co-workers in 2006. His contract was not renewed in 2008.

With that, and other examples, it's hard to see how Mariotti survives this scandal.

Stay tuned.

CNN iReport at Comic Con 2010 - meet LiLa King and crew

For Comic Con 2010 San Diego, CNN elected to make establish a major presence to capture the 18 to 30 year old demographic for its online content. And to do that, CNN dispatched its iReport Initiative Team, headed by LiLa King.

Lila asked this blogger to join the iReport Team for some kind of confab at 1:30 in San Diego's Gaslamp District on the last day of Comic Con. The visit was more than worth it, as Lila presented the gift of a cool Fiip Mino HD Video Camcorder specially designed in CNN iReport colors, including the Dick Tracy-like profile icon, and a CNN hat!



In the video, Lila referred to this video blogger as "The original iReport OG," which means "Original gangster." Normally, I'd disown such a designation, but coming from LiLa is it was just fine.

This blogger has been a contributor to the CNN iReport since 2007 and really ramped up contributions in 2008 and at the behest of Jessica Ellis of CNN Special Project Unit. The result was a self-created wedding of iReport, YouTube, Zennie62 blog (then called Zennie's Zeitgeist) content, and Twitter into one multi-platform stew.

Because of that and my iReport videos, LiLa King and Henry Hanks invited me to visit their offices at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta. Since I spend about half my time there helping my Mother, a visit was easy. I even took her with me.



If you've not used CNN's iReport to post your video blogs, give it a shot; visit with a click here. You just may wind up on CNN.

Carrie Preston at True Blood's Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer wedding

According to The Stir, HBO's True Blood's Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer got married in Malibu, and without the fake blood that covered their bodies in the photo on the cover of the September Rolling Stone Magazine.

True Blood co-star Carrie Preston was at the event, as well as Elijah Wood, and both saw the groom jump into the pool, as presented at TMZ.com.

The romance between Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer started while they were on the set of True Blood, then blossomed into his proposal a year ago. The Stir asks if on screen romances, like the one between Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer's characters, that become off-screen romances (real or fake) make you watch movies.

Carrie Preston

There's no real proof that formula consistently works. (If someone knows of a study on that, inform this blogger.) A movie or TV show ultimately survives on how good its viewers perceive it to be.

The romance creates buzz that a good publicist can use to fan the flames of interest, but if viewers don 't like what they see beyond the attention increase, they will go away.

That's also true even for the all the buzz around the True Blood Rolling Stone photo with Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Alexander Skarsgard on the cover.

While it's got the blogsphere talking, if people watch and don't like True Blood, the party's over.

Chicago Bears Offense Protection Problems Due To Martz Design

Mike Martz offensive design got 49ers Alex Smith injured
Is Bears  Jay Cutler next?

The Chicago Bears lost to the Oakland Raiders 32 to 17 and while it was a preseason game, its still important from the perspective of evaluating players and schemes. The Chicago Bears Offense under Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz can move the ball, but it comes with the protection problems that have always plagued Martz offenses.

According to ProFootballTalk.com, Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler claimed the team "had a few protection issues." Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith said that Left Tackle Chris Williams performance was "Not good enough," and added, "It's as simple as that. Whenever you give up a couple of sacks as an offensive lineman, that is not good. Chris is a better player than that."

Exactly.

But it's hard to be a good offensive tackle when your offensive coordinator has you retreat-blocking, rather than fight-blocking. The signature problem with the Mike Martz Offense is the offensive line pass pocket retreats faster than is necessary to run the patterns Mike installs.

Mike, for some weird reason, has never corrected that problem.

It's the same issue that caused San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Alex Smith to be sacked into near oblivion in 2008, then get injured.

And it is the same problem that had Detroit Lions Quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan taste Ford Field turf over 50 times in 2007. But guess what? When Martz came over from the Lions, where he lasted for two years, and to the 49ers, he brought J.T. with him and the same offensive line blocking problem.

Martz lasted one year in San Francisco.

If Mike Martz wants to last longer than the 2010 Season with the Chicago Bears, he needs to correct his design problem. And the NFL must stop giving Martz a pass by continuously hiring him and calling him a genius. Martz will be a genius in this space after he fixes the O-line blocking problem.

Otherwise, Jay Cutler may become another Alex Smith of 2008.

Green Bay Packers Aaron Rodgers has 153.9 Preseason Passer Rating

It's obvious that California Golden Bear and Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been lighting up the NFL Preseason with his passing.

In two games, the replacement for Brett Favre has thrown 24 passes, completing 20, for 275 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no interceptions.

Normally, this blogger discounts preseason as not a good indicator of the regular season. But this is different. Aaron Rodgers is now ready to put the Pack on his back. He's got a 153.9 passer rating in two games.

To say Aaron's accurate is an understatement. He once hit a net with a football from 50 yards away, twice.

Don't believe it?



I'm not going to pick the Pack for The Super Bowl because The Vikings, Bears, and Lions all look much improved over 2009.

But Rodgers will be a force in 2010. That much is certain.

ESPN's Jay Mariotti Destroyed On Twitter After Domestic Violence Arrest

UPDATE: Mariotti may be done at ESPN.

This video blogger met ESPN's Jay Mariotti at The Clevelander, a famous Miami hotel and bar in 2007 and during the week before Super Bowl XLI pitting the Indianapolis Colts against the Chicago Bears.

For a guy who spends a lot of air time blasting athletes, he's was a nice person.  That's how it goes: people assume the person is really like their on-air persona.   Nope.

Jay was just hanging out when I walked up and introduced myself. He was very nice to me, and not at all like his reputation.

But considering his celebrity, you'd expect him to have an entourage. No. Mariotti was alone at the time and it was a bright, sunny Friday with a lot of people around before the weekend of the game. By contrast, I was with friends.

The thought that went through my mind was that absent the ESPN fame and the Sun Times relationship at the time, Jay Mariotti was just a normal guy living in Chicago. No girls around him.  Moreover, no one seemed to notice him.  In fact, he'd just parted ways with the Sun Times and was just with ESPN.

Now, he's in Los Angeles and for some reason is accused of domestic violence against his girlfriend.  Sad for both parties. While it's the hope that's not the case, the observation is that journalists who become media stars don't seem to hold up well in the self-esteem department. One would think it would be the reverse, but this blogger's experience - based on Super Bowls and parties - is that's not the case at all.

And that's all I'll say about that.

One thing is Jay's getting his arse handed to him on Twitter.  It's the byproduct of the idea that what goes around, comes around: if you spend TV time tearing down people, people will tear you down the moment something goes wrong.  And that's the case with Jay now.

Barnes_C - Marrioti hasn't been the same since he got canned by the Suntimes RT @espn: Sports commentator Jay Mariotti (cont) http://tl.gd/3920ko

Perhaps that's the case. But whatever, it's clear that Chad Ochocinco's well aware of Jay's problem:

@terrellowens Holy jail time Batman,another ESPN analyst has been arrested, Jay Mariotti, lets see if they crucify their own like they do us
about 18 hours ago via web in reply to terrellowens

The lesson for Jay is when you're famous, you have to be on your best behavior. The whole World has an view about you, and if it's already negative, they will feed on you in a moment when you do something wrong.

Oakland Mayor's Race: Lawyers Forum Sept 10th; EBYD Website Fix Needed

EBYD.  Greg Harrland's running...

Yep. Another forum is coming up for the Oakland Mayor's Race. It's the Alameda County Democratic Lawyers Club Forum on September 10th. Held at Everett and Jones Restaurant in Jack London Square at 12 Noon that day, every mayoral candidate has been invited to what's both a forum and an endorsement meeting.

East Bay Young Democrats (EBYD) Behind Current Events

On its website on the Oakland Mayor's Race, the East Bay Young Democrats explain that "there are three main contenders for the cities top position, and goes on to mention Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Former Senator Don Perata, and Councilmember Jean Quan, and that's it. The web page was created before the June 10th mayoral forum at First Unitarian Church and never updated.

Here's an assist.

There are 10 candidates for Mayor of Oakland: Terrance Candell, Arnold Fields, Greg Harland, Marcie Hodge, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Don Macleay, Don Macleay, Councilmember Jean Quan, Joe Tuman, and Larry Lionel Young Jr.

This points to a still nasty, but really fun-to-fight tendency of at least two East Bay Political Reporters to favor just the three candidates and express a desire to ignore the rest. How this blogger know this will not be revealed. But let's just say a lot of people share a lot of things.

Oakland Mayor's Race candidates be warned: the mainstream media doesn't want to make the playing field a level one. That means you're going to have to approach the media, and not wait for them to call you. Chances are you'll be waiting until hell freezes over.