Chris Mortensen was a legendary insider before social media turned deadlines from days to seconds. His rise in the early 1990s from newspapers to ESPN comes at a time when Sunday pregame broadcasts are still paramount.
For viewers who grew up with the network, there will be something eternally special about recalling “NFL Sunday Countdown” host Chris Berman’s speech when he ended some anchors with a nickname familiar to all football fans – “Mort!”
Then Mortensen will give a tidbit of information that no one else knows about. It was delivered with honesty and respect for its subject, leading to more and more scoops. Sunday after Sunday and soon after all the days in between.
What always stood out about Mort was his decency. This was demonstrated in his role, attracting his successor, Adam Schefter.
In a world where reporters were fighting to be on ESPN’s “Bottom Line,” Mortensen not only moved and made room for Schefter in 2009, but insisted that Schefter be hired behind the scenes.
While many in the business – even those in the highest places – guard their place with vanity and pettiness, Mortensen welcomes Schefter as his team partner.
“Mort endorsed it, endorsed it, signed it,” Schefter said Athletic on Sunday.
Mortensen, who died Sunday at the age of 72, was a legendary figure in sports media, part of the transformation of sports reporting.
There were NFL insiders before Mortensen on TV. On the one hand, Will McDonagh, on Sunday’s pregame shows on CBS and NBC, floated the idea of an on-set newsman. But the game changed when ESPN’s news editor, John Walsh, decided to lean on the network.
In 1988, Peter Gammons arrived in baseball. Three years later, it was Mortensen in the NFL. They were printers on TV. They reported, telling people information before they could read it. ESPN is quickly competing — and winning, big — at being the center of the sports news game.
In the 1990s, before the explosion of the Internet, these scoops had even more staying power because the competition couldn’t simply confirm or generalize an account of moments and claim it as their own. ESPN would bill themselves as the “World Leader in Sports” and it didn’t hurt their cause to have the likes of Gammons and Mortensen as their top insiders.
It’s hard to imagine Mortensen ever doing a touchdown “WWL” dance after a scoop. He always looked more like Barry Sanders passing the ball to the referee. But Mortensen helped make ESPN’s bold claim come true.
While he wasn’t perfect and regretted the Patriots’ Deflategate scandal, he had what is most important to any reporter – a reputation for credibility.
“I remember when I was at NFL Network,” Schefter said, referring to his previous employer. “It wasn’t so much a spoonful. It was just the volume of the scoops.
And Schefter added, you knew they were right.
Mortensen became a big TV star, but he never acted like one. From production assistants to his fellow insiders, he did the right thing. The way he treated Schefter is just one example.
“I wouldn’t be at ESPN today if it wasn’t for Mort,” Schefter said.
It wasn’t just Mortensen who was magnanimous in hiring Schefter. In 1988, when Gammons came to baseball, and in 1991, when Mortensen arrived in the NFL, if they weren’t the right guys at the right time on the right network, then what is normal now – insiders everywhere on TV and elsewhere — would not exist.
Not only did Mortensen have exclusive information, but he also had a strong performance. He was likable, both on and off screen.
“He had a decency about him that most people just didn’t have,” Schefter said.
(Photo: A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
