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Chris Mortensen was a legendary expert before social media changed timelines from days to seconds. His rise in the early 1990s from newspapers to ESPN came at a time when Sunday pregame shows were still paramount.
For viewers who grew up with the network, there will be something eternally special about remembering “NFL Sunday Countdown” host Chris Berman’s inflection when he ended an introduction with a nickname familiar to every football fan: “Mort!”
Mortensen would then give a bit of information that no one else knew. He was delivered with a fairness and respect for his subject that led to more and more scoops. Sunday after Sunday and, soon after, every day in between.
What always stood out about “Mort” was his decency. He demonstrated this in his role by bringing in his successor, Adam Schefter.
In a world where reporters were fighting to be on ESPN’s Bottom Line, Mortensen not only stepped aside and made room for Schefter in 2009, he pushed for Schefter to be hired behind the scenes.
While many in the business, even those in the highest positions, protect their place with vanity and pettiness, Mortensen welcomed Schefter as his teammate.
“Mort endorsed it, supported it, approved of it,” Schefter said. The Athletic on Sunday.
Mortensen, who died Sunday at age 72, was a legendary figure in sports media, part of transforming the way sports reporting was presented.
There were NFL pundits before Mortensen on TV. For one thing, Will McDonough, on the Sunday pregame shows on CBS and NBC, gave prominence to the idea of an on-set information person. But the game changed when ESPN news editor John Walsh decided to lean on the network.
In 1988, Peter Gammons came to baseball. Three years later, he was Mortensen in the NFL. They were printers on television. They informed, telling people information before they could read it. ESPN quickly competed, and won big, to be the center of the sports news game.
In the 1990s, before the explosion of the Internet, those scoops had even more staying power because competitors couldn’t simply confirm or add to a report in moments and take it as their own. ESPN would declare themselves the “world leader in sports,” and it didn’t hurt their cause that they had people like Gammons and Mortensen as their top pundits.
It’s hard to imagine Mortensen ever doing a “WWL” touchdown dance after a scoop. He always looked more like Barry Sanders, handing the ball to the referee. But Mortensen helped make ESPN’s bold claim a reality.
Although he was not perfect and he regretted the infamous Patriots “Deflategate” storyHe had what is most important for any journalist: a trustworthy reputation.
“I remember when I was at NFL Network,” Schefter said, referring to his previous employer. “It wasn’t so much a first. “It was just the volume of firsts.”
And Schefter added: you knew they were right.
Mortensen became a big television star, but he never behaved like one. From the production assistants to his intern colleagues, he acted in the right way. The way he treated Schefter is just one example.
“I wouldn’t be on ESPN today if it weren’t for Mort,” Schefter said.
It was more than just Mortensen’s magnanimity in hiring Schefter. In 1988, when Gammons came into baseball, and in 1991, when Mortensen came to the NFL, if they weren’t the right guys at the right time and at the right network, then what’s normal now: Insiders everywhere television and elsewhere. – would cease to exist.
Mortensen not only had exclusive information, but he had a forceful delivery. He was likable, both on and off screen.
“There was a decency about him that most people just didn’t have,” Schefter said.
(Photo: A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)