Slingbox is an incredible invention: It allows people to watch their TV on their laptop. Also brilliant: wireless network cards. I used one on Thanksgiving and it made the 42-hour ride with my family much, much easier.

Of course, I didn’t have to pay $28,067.31 in order to write about sports, which is the amount that AT&T recently charged Wayne Burdick of Schaumburg (via the Consumerist) to watch a Chicago Bears game on his laptop while sitting in port, waiting for his cruise vacation to begin. (Note: Burdick is not pictured to your right.)

I watched for about 2½ hours. Then I shut down my computer and cell phone, because it’s expensive to use your Internet or phone when you sail out of the country.

Anyway, I got home from our cruise, and about two weeks later I got my cell phone/wireless card bill, which is usually about $220, and it said I owe $28,067.31.

I called AT&T and told them there was either a mistake or fraud and to please take this off the bill. That’s where the fun starts. They told me that the bill was correct and somehow I was charged international rates for Internet use, and the cost is 2 cents per kb. That came out to $27,788.93.

Wayne shot the above note to the Sun-Times and “The Fixer” Stephanie Zimmerman, who, after publishing Wayne’s problem in a national newspaper, conveniently managed to get AT&T to cut down their charges to his normal bill. This is, obviously fair — Wayne was inside his cell phone range and still nearly got hijacked by the company.

But I think the larger point here isn’t that AT&T stinks sometimes (they do — why don’t I get any cell service in my apartment?). It’s that being a Bears fan is a painful, costly experience most of the time.

So, last week, it appeared that barring all the usual legal entanglements, Jay Mariotti would be bringing his reign of terror to the Chicago Tribune. It was a matter of when, not if. However, it looks like the whole legal/lawyer/non-compete clause issue was too big a stickler and Jay himself said his brief tryst with the Tribune is dunzo:

He said lawyers from the Sun-Times threatened to sue if he joined the company, claiming a jump to the competing news outlet would violate a non-compete agreement.

Mariotti and Tribune “talked about television, about the Internet, about the newspaper,” he said. Mariotti said that discussions about working for Tribune Co.’s Chicago Tribune newspaper became a stumbling block. “The Sun-Times’ lawyer threatened me with a lawsuit in 64-point type. Things sort of stalled,” he added.

[ ... ]

“At one point last week, there were lawyers on both sides looking into this,” Mariotti said. “It’s daunting to put together a deal. This [lawyer's letter] got thrown out in the middle of everything. We both decided that we can’t do what we wanted to do.”

What’s that noise I hear across the city this morning? Ah yes — a collective sigh of relief from Trib employees and sports media consumers. Also, I think I just heard Rick Morrissey and Mike Downey high five. Man that was loud. So where does Jay end up? He said he is talking with “other national media outlets.”

Stay tuned, brave souls.

Hey, Jay Mariotti news is back! Last we heard (and by “heard,” I mean “made up in the last 10 seconds”) Jay was sitting in his basement in Vernon Hills, writing password-protected posts on Blogger about how much the Bears ruled on Sunday night and how, despite all odds, the Bears embody Chicago’s hardworking, blue-collar spirit more than ever before. (Saturday, he was writing about how much Lovie Smith needs to be fired. Hey, a guy can quit, but he can’t lose that windsocky touch that makes him so overwhelmingly popular. Duh!)

Rest assured, Jay-Jay is actively seeking a new job. Where will it be? His renowned “Web sites?” New York, a “market that competes?” Or will he pull the most shocking move of all — going across town to his longtime rival, the Chicago Tribune? At least one blog hears things that way, so you know it’s definitely, 100 percent happening:

Sources tell Chi-ball that Jay Mariotti has had talks with the Chicago Tribune. Mariotti, can (sic) not write for another newspaper until his contract runs out with the Chicago Sun-Times. There is nothing however stopping the Trib from hiring the controversial Mariotti to be strictly an internet columnist. According to the source, this would not be a popular move within the Tribune staff.

Having been in the blog game for a little while, you can rest assured that this “source” is likely a friend — or former fellow journalism school attendee, or a father — that works in the Tribune newsroom and is gossiping with little recourse. That’s assuming there is a source. Not to doubt Chi Ball (nothing but love for those young blog hustlers) but as there’s absolutely no way to find out if this is true or not until it happens, and it’s sort of insane to think about, there’s not much else to say.

The notion that Mariotti would take a job at the paper that so mercilessly destroyed him even while he was still at the Sun-Times is the very definition of far-fetched. Surely the paper’s employees — who hate Mariotti like Sarah Palin hates interviews — would revolt. Surely this could never work.

Except — what if this isn’t that crazy? What if this could actually work?
Keep reading →

About a year ago, fresh out of college, I was without a real job. I spent my days blogging from my parents basement (this is actually true!) and F5-ing the Chicago Web jobs page on Craig’s List an ungodly amount of times during the day. Because well, all my friends were starting the 9-5 life and I didn’t want to be left out of the party. No one wants to be the kid with a college degree and no job or direction, as much as I love Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate.”  (Now look: I’m all grown up and a real-job blogger!)

So it is with great fun that Deadspin alerts us to this curious sports Web design posting, a position I would have certainly sent off my resume and portfolio to within two seconds of it getting posted.

WANTED
GEEK WITH STYLE
AND A PASSION FOR SPORTS

Major national sports personality website is looking for a talented webmaster/designer. Our goal is to have the most exciting, fun, engaging website that brings sports fans to the outstanding and unique content and information that they desire. We have the resources, you have the skills to take our brand and bring it to the web in a clean, creative, easy to navigate and exciting manner. This is an in-office full-time position.
Skills:
You should be proficient in Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, Audio/Video On Demand, HTML,XML, CSS.
Experience:
3-5 years web design, content management, preferably in a sports environment
Your personality:
The outstanding candidate will be eager to share an impressive portfolio of web design, examples of proactively contributing to team goals, enthusiasm for a fast paced environment and love hard work and fun!

Hmm, “national sports personality website?” Could this be former Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti’s next plan of attack for his suddenly Internet-crazy writing career? Tough to say, considering anyone can post anything on Craig’s List, but I want to believe.

I also want to believe that had the Sun-Times called one of Jay’s quitting bluffs last summer and this job was posted a year ago, I could be sitting in a cube while Jay tells me to change line-height and padding on his Web site.

I imagine this might not have been such a fun experience.

Today was officially Jay Mariotti Week. Sure, Barack Obama had a pretty big week, but in the sports world, the past five days have been all about Mariotti. (Coincidentally, what sparked the Mariotti resignation was a column about Obama, proving that you can’t escape Obama’s influence no matter how intellectually insulated you are.)

First, we learned of Mariotti’s resignation. Then we learned why Jay was resigning — he considered Chicago a market that “doesn’t compete,” whatever that means, and that he wanted to write for “Web sites” based on what he observed at the Olympics in Beijing. Jay, internet crusader, didn’t want to be on the Titanic when the ship went down.

The notion that it took Mariotti a trip to Beijing — in 2008 — to realize that the Internet was challenging newsprint seemed either incredibly naive or false or both. So it was only a little longer until we found out that the resignation was over the aforementioned Obama spat — Mariotti wanted to write about Obama, so did fellow Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander, and when Mariotti didn’t get his way he sent a two-word e-mail to the Sun-Times editor: “I quit.” Nice.

In the meantime, we’ve learned even more about how much everyone really hates Jay Mariotti. From former colleagues like Chris De Luca — who never seemed so eager to diss Mariotti before — to Rick Telander’s verbal hallelujahs in the Chicago Reader to editor Michael Cooke’s hamfisted statement to Roger Ebert’s scathing takedown yesterday, Mariotti was harangued by anyone who ever had anything to do with sports journalism in Chicago. It was a bloodbath. (Jerry Reinsdorf let us know his thoughts, too.)

Keep reading →

OK, so everybody hates Jay Mariotti. No surprise there. But few people hate the Eyebrowed One more than his former colleague, Rick Telander, who was forced to share column space, ideas, and company letterhead with the person who once said, “I’ve got a lot of reporters jealous of me. To hell with them.” That must have been fun!

Now that Mariotti is officially gone, Telander can get on with the business of being a columnist in Chicago. But not before he gets in some parting shots at his arch-enemy the way any good victorious general should.

From the brilliant Michael Miner at the Chicago Reader:

“Finally, hopefully forever, they called this person’s bluff,” said Telander. “You can only hold your breath and lie on the floor and pound your fist and kick your feet so many times. Why it took the paper so many years to do this is really just a tragedy. [...] Because the damage a ‘humorless loner,’ as you described him [I did], can do to an overstressed sports department is incalculable.” He said the sports department lost its cohesion and  became “sinister and secretive and f[---] your buddy. It was the worst possible teamwork conditions.”

“The good thing is that this is a chance for rebirth. This is joy. A whole s[---]load of guys called me last night joyous! Ding dong, the witch is dead! [...] I don’t even know to feel,” Telander went on. “I just don’t know. But if he’s gone forever, praise the lord.”

Pure, unfiltered joy, like a kid on Christmas. In between screams of pleasure, though, Telander has a point: Why didn’t the Sun-Times fire Mariotti sooner? Why did they put up with a petulant, self-centered loner? Why take Mariotti’s crap for so long?

Keep reading →

As I alluded to earlier today, the other side of the Jay Mariotti resignation was out there somewhere. (Even though the Sun-Times‘ press release didn’t say anything disputing Jay’s claims, they did get in a zinger about how they wouldn’t “personally” miss him. Burn.)

Deadspin’s Rick Chandler is citing two sources saying this had much more to do with yet another Rick Telander-Mariotti spat than it had to do with the Internet swallowing print whole :

Details are beginning to trickle in on Jay Mariotti’s sudden resignation from the Land of Newsprint, and it’s pretty much what you would expect: Jay quitting in a hissy fit over a perceived slight. According to two reliable sources, Mariotti, just back from Beijing, wanted to write a column on Barack Obama. But it wasn’t Jay’s turn to write — it was Rick Telander’s — and Telander also wanted to write on Obama. And we know how Mariotti feels about Rick. Sun-Times says no, Jay, wait your turn.

…

Then this bit of greatness: Mariotti resigned, and then headed to the Sun-Times office to tape his Around the Horn segment, only to find that his security pass had been deactivated while the paper was deciding whether or not to accept the resignation. They finally accepted it.

To be fair: this is Deadspin picking up on two anonymous sources, but given all Mariotti’s previous transgressions and how leaked stories like these about the man have turned out to be true in the past, it seems rather probable in my eyes. (Here is Telander’s rather meh column, if you’re interested.)

No matter what the story, somewhere Hawk Harrelson, Ozzie Guillen, Kenny Williams and Jerry Reinsdorf are raising their glasses in celebration.