Urlacher Boycotts Chicago Media, Mariotti Accepts Full Responsibility
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I was the one who injected the fan angle. I wanted Urlacher to realize the media are a conduit to the fans, and by issuing one- and two-word utterances, he was doing a disservice to consumers who pay his huge contract and watch his World Badminton Championship commercials. I wrote that the media, in the big picture, have made millions of dollars for Urlacher and suggested he shouldn't sound-bite the hand that feeds him. - Jay Mariotti
Sometime ago, it was suggested here that Chicago sports personalities avoid the local media until a certain back page pundit is fired.
It seems that perhaps the highest profiled and most media scrutinized Chicago based athlete, Brian Urlacher, has caught drift of that proposal.
In a continuance to yesterday's tirade against the Chicago Bears linebacker, Jay Mariotti resumes his verbal assault with regurgitated diatribes against Urlacher's character and personal life. Included in this morning's column is a running theme of allegory slanderous opining that Urlacher is "not a man's man", "whiny", and an "immature sellout" who needs to "grow up, lad."
As if that were not enough of a character assassination of #54, the notorious text messages supposedly sent by Urlacher to estranged former girlfriend/mother of his son, Tyna Robertson, resurface in a column somehow miscast as "sports" rather than "celebrity gossip".
Does anyone really need to wonder why Urlacher has elected Jay Glazer to blog about his injury and any other matters actually relating to football?
True to Jay's inner personal sense of human depravity and indifference, the dwarf gleefully accepts full responsibility for Urlacher's boycott of the Chicago media. Apparently Mariotti is tiring of beating a dead horse better known as Fag Gate and has recruited Brian Urlacher as the new back page whipping boy:
Urlacher is heading down the same slippery slope as Ozzie Guillen, whose rants were celebrated when the White Sox were World Series champions but fell on deaf ears when they tumbled into an underachieving pit.
Rick Telander, long time columnist of the Chicago Sun-Times seems to understand that Mariotti has crossed the line by offering that Urlacher is indeed a "man's man" (no coincidence in the usage of that phrasing). However, Telander is shortsightedly closing ranks with Mariotti :
The nonsense of providing info only tofans, only through a for-profit Web site, is so blatantly short-sighted, contradictory, vindictive and possibly unethical -- if Urlacher gets anything in return from the Web site or Glazer, even intangibles, it breaches NFL rules -- that it's almost laughable.
Hey Rick, you claim to be a family man. Would you open up to a local media group that consists of a certain you know who that divulges non-sports related content onto the back page of a national newspaper? Would you want private correspondence to become public knowledge as fodder for a column as ridiculous and nonsensical as authored by Jay Mariotti?
I doubt it.
On cue as usual, is David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune. Haugh usually looks beyond the day to day inconsequential flame throwing rhetoric and analyzes the bigger picture. With Urlacher admitting to a chronically degenerative medical condition such as spinal arthritis, the linebacker's long-term career forecast is suddenly murky. Haugh correctly ponders if Urlacher is physically capable of maintaining his high level of excellence as linebacker along with a suddenly heightened priority for Halas Hall to sign Lance Briggs to a long term deal. Congratulations David for sticking to real football matters with intelligent and honest factual opinions.
As for Telander and any other self-righteous local media personnel indignant over Blog Gate, blame yourself for shirking behind the media wall by aligning with Mariotti. Just stick to reporting the damn sporting events and the participants on-field performances. Calling out athletes for refusing to talk to the local media that apparently condones a member for peppering columns with exploitive personal life gossip will result in more and more athletes such as Brian Urlacher and Curt Schilling blogging for themselves rather than disclosing information to the so-called professionals.
And Jay, since you like keeping score:
Urlacher - 1
Mariotti - 0
