Jay Mariotti, the opinionated and polarizing sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, told the Chicago Tribune he resigned on Tuesday after 17 years with the paper.

Just back from Beijing where he wrote about the Summer Olympics, Mariotti said in a phone interview Tuesday night that he decided to quit after it became clear while in China that sports journalism had become "entirely a Web site business. There were not many newspapers there.'' He added that most of the journalists covering the Games were "there writing for Web sites.''

Mariotti, whose public battles with fellow staffers, team owners, and rival columnists are legendary, didn't disclose any specific plans except to say he will continue doing his regular stint on ESPN's "Around the Horn.''

He said that he "is talking with a lot of Web sites'' and added that the future of his business "sadly is not in newspapers.'' Mariotti said that he sent a resignation letter to Cyrus Freidheim, Sun-Times Media Group Chief Executive and Sun-Times Publisher. When asked via email by the Tribune whether Mariotti had resigned, Sun-Times Editor Michael Cooke responded, "You're kidding?''



Cooke didn't reply to further requests for comment.

"They accepted it,'' Mariotti said of his resignation. "It was my call entirely.''

In a city with a strong sports journalism tradition, Mariotti is thought of as one of its premier columnists. With a style that relied on being contrarian no matter the topic, readers turned to him as much to disagree with what he had to say than agree. He added to his reputation with the scrapes he got in with the subjects he covered.

The highly-paid Mariotti quits after just signing a three-year contract extension in June. At that time, Cooke said that Mariotti was a "focal point'' of the Sun-Times sports section, praising his "pull no punches'' approach.

Commenting on his 17 years at the paper, Mariotti said he loved every minute of it. But he said that with the troubled times newspapers face, it was time to consider a new future.

"I'm a competitor and I get the sense this marketplace doesn't compete,'' he said. "Everyone is hanging on for dear life at both papers. I think probably the days of high stakes competition in Chicago are over.

"To see what's happened in this business...I don't want to go down with it.''

Wow.

Ozzie will be happy.

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Wow. That's pretty weird. He talks about "tough times" for papers but he just signed a 3-year deal. He got his money. It's pretty impressive to walk away from that money.

I don't buy Jay's story however. He has something bigger lined up or already offered to him. You don't quit his big money deal unless that is the case.

He said he has been talking to websites, maybe bigfan found his writer for the news letter.

He'll probably write for ESPN.com. He works for them now.

Hell, Jay was working for a website. Suntimes.com gets a lot of hits I'm sure.

Some might not like this, but I liked some of Jays work, for sure he got me to check his column everyday.

He never pissed me off. I didn't read him much cuz he was predictable. He did have some good thoughts and columns at times.

Fuck him. Any douchebag can write shit just to piss people off and claim that their doing their job by creating a buzz. One trick pony. Good bye, I won't miss you.

Sun-Times stock is at .30 a share.

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President of Blake Shetlon fan club

He is a coward, who wrote crap and then didn't have the balls to go in the clubhouse, for fear of getting his butt whipped. He called LaTroy Hawkins- Latoya , and referred to Rick Aguillera as Christina Aguillera, both girls names obviously. Yet he got in such a twist when Ozzie Called him a F_G , that he wanted him fired for it. Can't have it both ways. Now he says the web sites are the new wave and working for the newspapers is passe. Who cares about the trends as long as he has a well paying gig? Why not ride out the new contract? Doesnt pass the smell test. But I will not miss all his articles that suggest that Ozzie be fired or ones where he rips Reinsdorf. He lets his personal relationships affect his writing far too often. Plus, he was never a Chicago guy as far as I am concerned. He would bring out his stupid "city of weak shoulders" line every now and then and that told you how he really feels about Chicago deep down. Good riddens....

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Go Cubs!!!!

I didn't totally have a problem with his absence from the clubhouse. His wind sock ways and inability to pull himself away from ripping Reinsdorf and Guillen in columns that dealt with other issues is what really soured me.
His reason for leaving sounds pretty flimsy. The Sun-Times has been struggling for some time -- even before he signed the three-year deal. Jay was already writing web columns for the Bright One, but he makes it appear that the paper was entrenched in outdated ideas.

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President of Blake Shetlon fan club

The problem with him not being in the clubhouse, is that he is missing out on a lot of information/insight that might well help him to write better columns. Not just that he be there to stand up and answer for any comments he made.

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Go Cubs!!!!

That's not a given. That feeds more into the "he needs to be a man" question. His biggest problem dealt with a vendetta that bled itself into a lot of columns. Columns are based on opinions, but Jay made it seem like a personal mission to slam Jerry and Ozzie at almost every turn.

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President of Blake Shetlon fan club