This broke while I was away from my computer. AOL has suspended columnist Jay Mariotti from Fanhouse and a spokesman has said he will not write anything new for the web service for the foreseeable future. Richard Deitsch from Sports Illustrated who’s been breaking a lot of news lately, got the statement from AOL and tweeted it.
I’ll post it for you in its entirety here.
Statement from an AOL spokesperson: “We are continuing to gather all the facts. In the meantime, we have suspended Jay Mariotti and are not featuring any new work from him.”
It comes five days after Mariotti was arrested in Los Angeles on domestic assault charges in an incident involving his girlfriend.Mariotti posted $50,000 bond and has not been heard from since.
His other employer, ESPN, has not made any statements or conducted any disciplinary action against Mariotti at this time. And since the show on which he regularly appears, “Around The Horn” is off the air this week anyway, Mariotti is in essence, serving a suspension, but we’ll see if ESPN takes any action against him in the near future.
In the meantime, Mariotti sits somewhere in Los Angeles in hiding and wondering if he’ll be employed at this time next week.
UPDATE, 12:10 p.m.: On the DL’s Dan Levy has heard from ESPN and a spokesman has told him that Mariotti will not appear on “Around The Horn” next week and will not comment further.
