It's been almost two years since Jay Mariotti last wrote a sports column or appeared on ESPN. In that time, sports media's ur-controversialist—a pioneer of the sportswriters-being-dicks-on-television genre—has pleaded no contest to misdemeanor stalking and assault-related charges stemming from a hair-pulling fight…

Via Deitsch: "We are continuing to gather all the facts. In the meantime, we have suspended Jay Mariotti and are not featuring any new work from him."

The woman, seen in this photo taken last May at a bar in Santa Monica, is Jay Mariotti's girlfriend, the one involved in the alleged domestic disturbance early Saturday morning. The eyewitness who called the cops on Mariotti gives us his report.