If you’re not a sports fan you probably don’t know who Jay Mariotti is. But, that’s okay because the media storm surrounding him right now has nothing to do with sports. It has to do with hypocrisy and payback.
Jay Mariotti was a long time columnist for the Chicago Sun Times and has been a regular on ESPN’s bombastic and annoying as fuck show “Around the Horn” since its inception. Mariotti is best known for his moralizing and strict law and order opinions. He’s been known to even demand that athletes who are accused of illegal behavior be suspended and dealt with harshly even though they haven’t yet (and often times never are) convicted of any wrongdoing. For Mariotti, just the accusation is usually enough for him to be morally outraged and demand justice be served quickly and mercilessly.
Well, this last weekend Jay Mariotti was arrested and charged with domestic violence. He was freed on Sunday after posting a $50,000 bail.
Fitty grand? Sounds like a pretty serious situation doesn’t it.
A witness claims we saw Mariotti pushing his girlfriend around and the last thing he saw was Jay grabbing his girlfriend and shoving her into an elevator. A few minutes later the police arrived and took Mariotti off to the 77th precinct and booked him.
As soon as news broke Twitter and the sports blogosphere exploded. It was impossible to find anyone doing anything other than crushing Mariotti. One sports columnist even called it “shocking.”
Well it was. I also hope it was a wake up call for media types who have made a career out of finger-wagging and sitting in judgment of others.
Mariotti was getting exactly what he has been dishing out for the last 20 years or so. People were being just as patient and considerate of him as he has been of everyone else. They were giving him the same benefit of the doubt (zero) that he gives everyone else.
Is it fair? No. But, is it understandable? Yes.
I liken this situation to Rush Limbaugh’s when he admitted that he was addicted to pain medications. After years and years of excoriating people who were addicted to anything from drugs to alcohol or whatever, suddenly Rush was the addict asking for sympathy and understanding. Something he, like Mariotti, was never willing to extend to anyone else.
Were most of the people who immediately started trashing Limbaugh hypocrites? Yes, because they’re the people who for years and years had been saying (rightly I believe) that addiction to drugs or alcohol or whatever is a disease and should be treated as such. And instead of taking that stand with Limbaugh they demanded full prosecution and incarceration.
But, even so, they weren’t necessarily being unfair to Limbaugh. They were simply giving him some of what he had dished out over the years. Paybacks are a bitch and Limbaugh, like Mariotti was in no position to demand compassion when they were never willing to show it themselves.
Truth is this happens every single day to people. People who are judging and gossiping about others suddenly find themselves on the receiving end and they don’t like it. Well, the best way to avoid that terrible feeling is to not be the finger-wagging holier than thou Judgy McJudgerson type.
Sure, we all do it on some level. We all judge people, we all like to be morally outraged from time to time. But, we all need to remember that we are one bad weekend, or one terrible emotional, physical or medical situation from finding ourselves in the exact same situation. Nobody is immune to it. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, how morally pure you are or how well intentioned you are.
If, God forbid, any of us should step in it, I’m sure we all hope that we aren’t on the receiving end of the kind of vitriol that Mariotti and Limbaugh were. And the best way to avoid that is to make sure we aren’t the ones constantly dishing it out.
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