Sports Television Media Continues to Mourn ESPN Insider Chris Mortensen
Sports media lost one of its titans over the weekend, as ESPN NFL reporter Chris Mortensen passed away at age 72. Mortensen battled stage 4 throat cancer and retired from ESPN’s airwaves in 2023 after over three decades on the air.
Tributes and kind words poured in for the late, great Mortensen from all corners of the internet, from his current and former colleagues at ESPN to peers at FOX and NFL Network, to current and former NFL players. The tributes didn’t stop through Monday when many sports media members were back in front of cameras, offering condolences and thoughts to Mortensen and his family.
Monday began with ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, who has a long, storied relationship with Mortensen, narrating an eight-minute dedication to his colleague, mentor, and friend.
Throughout the day, programs like Get Up, First Take, and The Pat McAfee Show dedicated segments to Mortensen, and hosts like Pat McAfee, Adam Schefter, Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe, Mike Greenberg, Dan Orlovsky, and more had the opportunity to reflect on the longtime NFL insider and their relationships with him.
“It’s a devastating loss,” Smith said. “There’s an empty, empty feeling today to know that he’s no longer going to be here because all of us valued him tremendously and we’ll miss him dearly.”
Former ESPNer Dan Le Batard dedicated two segments to Mortensen — one at the end of the Monday show’s first live hour alongside the other members of his crew and started the first segment of the “Big Suey” block alongside Adam Schefter.
Schefter revealed that Mortensen pushed hard for the network to hire him following his contract expiring with NFL Network. “I’m not at ESPN without Mort,” Schefter told Le Batard. “He changed the trajectory of my life just as he changed the trajectory of so many other lives…he was the best.”
Fellow NFL insider Mike Florio also dedicated a segment to Mortensen on Pro Football Talk, where he discussed his peer along with former NFL QB Chris Simms.
“Chris Mortensen has been a great friend to the Simms family for a long time,” Simms said. “He’s been somebody that I’ve had a close relationship with towards the end of my career playing football and it continued into my media career. He’s a pioneer in a lot of ways for what he did for the sport and then did it in a way that was classy with grace and dignity. He had more information than people realize…but he never used it against anybody, he never burned anybody. He was a great human being, a great friend of mine.”
The cast of Good Morning Football also gave their thoughts about Mortensen, many of whom grew up watching him on ESPN. “What a life worth living that you do this thing, you break news, you’re one of the true pioneers of a craft that is now an entire industry, and it’s secondary to what a guy you were,” said Peter Schrager, one of Good Morning Football’s hosts. Fellow co-host Kyle Brandt offers a personal tale between him and Mortensen, despite never meeting in person.
“Randomly, one day I get a direct message from Chris Mortensen, who I have never met,” Brandt says, “it says, ‘I wanted to reach out and tell you how much I enjoy your show and the knowledge and fun and creativity. I’ve been sidelined healthwise for a few weeks and you guys really made my morning worth the time.’ And that’s not about ‘go us,’ that’s about an established, made guy, saying ‘I’m going to reach out to that little wacky morning show and tell them how much I appreciate them as I’m home sick right now.’ And I felt the same way — that I lost someone I really cared about even though I didn’t really know him.
In 2016, Mortensen received the Pro Football Writers of America’s Dick McCann Award at the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s enshrinement ceremony in August of that same year. Mortensen is survived by his wife Micki and son Alex.
