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.
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