For now, anyway.  Though he’s dismisssing an item published by the Hawaiian Tropic Zone Sports By Brooks as “a silly internet report”, the always humble Jay Mariotti’s one year at AOL Sports appears to have been a mere layover before switching to a crosstown rival.  From the Daily Herald’s Ted Cox :

Mariotti (above, right), while allowing that “the Tribune and I have had discussions about various projects,” quickly added, “but we have not finalized it.”

Still, reports that Mariotti, who quit the Sun-Times a year ago insisting that newspapers were “dying,” would swing to the Trib first surfaced almost a year ago and were reportedly shot down by a noncompete clause in Mariotti’s old deal with the Sun-Times.

“My noncompete clause at the Sun-Times expires in late August,” Mariotti added.