Jay Mariotti debuted his AOL Sports column today and everyone from Deadspin to the Chicago Tribune is weighing in.
"How did the initial effort go? I have to say, I've never before seen The Great Wall of China, Richard M. Daley and animal penis combined so seamlessly in an opening paragraph. But then I don't read as much as I should," writes Rick Chandler at Deadspin.
Mariotti spent 17 years at the Chicago Sun-Times. He left the paper in August. Tribune's Phil Rosenthal interviewed Mariotti yesterday and one quote is not so much a backhand at his former employer, than it is a slap at the newspaper industry in general:
"For the first time I won't have to worry about a third-quarter plugger column or something as inane," Mariotti said. "I can watch the whole game, a four-hour game, go downstairs [from the press box] and come back up, spend two hours writing and have it appear on a post at 3 in the morning, which is four hours before the newspaper comes. It's the future."
Mariotti's debut column also offers a quick synopsis of the state of sportswriting today: "The best young writers provide compelling takes on sports. The losers wake up each day and attack (choose your ESPN target), an approach that can't attract much audience beyond a few neurotic souls in sports media."
While AOL is using Mariotti as part of its sports redesign and refocus this month, it could never have forseen what one commenter wrote on the Trib story: "You (Mariotti) showed zero class in everything you did. From eating a beef sandwich with extra jardinera, to quitting your job. I will now cancel my AOL Instant Messenger account."
