ESPN broadcaster Mortensen dies
Chris Mortensen, a longtime NFL reporter for ESPN, has died at 72, the network announced.
No cause of death was immediately made public. Mortensen, whose 2016 diagnosis of and treatments for Stage 4 throat cancer limited his subsequent on-air appearances, said in September he was stepping away from work to “focus on my health, family and faith.”
One of the first reporters to fill a national “insider” role for a given sport, Mortensen won numerous awards for his journalism before and during his career at ESPN. After being hired at the network in 1991, he became a familiar, authoritative presence on programs such as Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, NFL GameDay, and SportsCenter.
“An absolutely devastating day,” ESPN's Adam Schefter, a fellow NFL news-breaker who has spoken in the past of how friendly and collegial Mortensen was when Schefter was brought aboard at the network, wrote on social media. “Mort was one of the greatest reporters in sports history, and an even better man. Sincerest condolences to his family, and all who knew and loved him. So many did.”
NFL Network was engaged in live coverage Sunday of the league's annual draft combine when host Rich Eisen and analyst Daniel Jeremiah took an emotional moment to memorialize Mortensen.
After calling Mortensen “one of the best football reporters we've ever known” and noting “he was so nice to me” when they both worked at ESPN, Eisen threw it to Jeremiah, who described Mortensen as a “mentor” and “one of my best friends.”
“I just want to look at the camera and tell Micki, his wife, and Alex, his son — every time I talked to Mort, you guys came up,” added Jeremiah, who grew increasingly tearful. “He was so proud of you, he loves you so much. You're always in his heart, you're always on his mind. He's a sweet, sweet person.”
A native of Torrance, Calif., who attended community college there before spending two years in the army, Mortensen began his journalism career in 1969 with the South Bay (Calif.) Daily Breeze. He worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1983 to 1990. In 1987, he became one of the relatively few sports reporters to have won a prestigious George Polk award for longform investigative or enterprise journalism.