Jay Mariotti is returning to ESPN, but in a different role.
The former panelist on Around the Horn said he is working on “a freelance storytelling” assignment.
Mariotti wrote in an email:
ESPN has graciously given me a chance to try freelance storytelling, potentially a longer-form piece the network does so well. I’ve started working on a particular project.
I’ve been fortunate to write the columns, do the TV shows, host the radio shows, cover the major events and see the world. I think strong narratives always will stand out in a sports media business swirling in change (not all good). You’re seeing a boom in definitive, longer-form stories for TV and digital. Getting to explore this creative avenue with ESPN, the industry leader, is exactly what interests me right now. I appreciate the opportunity, and we’ll see where it goes from here.
It isn’t a surprise that Mariotti hooked up with ESPN again. Even though he was dismissed, Mariotti still continued to speak highly of the network, lauding the work done at various levels. Obviously, he wanted to keep the lines of communications open.
Now as he says, we’ll see where it goes from here.
by “lauding the work done at various levels,” one assumes you mean “ignoring all possible factual reality by extolling the efforts of ESPN in the Te’o story when it was painfully aware to any and all observers that Deadspin destroyed the 4 Letters’ coverage.”
if anything, Mariotti’s “sabbatical” has done nothing but confirm he’s a talent-deprived blowhard. it’s pretty sad that ESPN would go back and associate themselves with a well-past-his-prime and remorseless weasel.