Chris Mortensen (born November 7, 1951) is an American journalist providing reports for

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's '' Sunday NFL Countdown'', ''

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'', ''

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'',

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

, and

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Early life

Mortensen attended

North Torrance High School North Torrance High School is a four-year public high school located at 3620 W. 182nd St. in Torrance, California. Of the four public high schools in the Torrance Unified School District, North High is the second oldest. The school's mascot is ...

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...

, and

El Camino College El Camino College (Elco or ECC) is a two-year public community college located in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County known as Alondra Park.Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

Career

Mortensen says his journalism career began once he realized that he no longer could compete in football, basketball and baseball beyond high school. He forsook his goal of being a teacher and coach when he realized how competitive sports journalism could be. Since starting his career with the ''Daily Breeze'' newspaper in

in 1969, Mortensen has received 18 awards in journalism. In 1978, he won the National Headliner Award for Investigative Reporting in all categories. In 1999, he made a film on ''The Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling''.

''Atlanta Journal-Constitution''

From 1983 to 1990, Mortensen worked at the ''

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

'', filing investigative reports and covering the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

(1983–85),

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

(1985–86) and the NFL (1987–89). In 1987, he was given the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...

for his reporting.

''The National''

He previously covered the NFL for '' The National'' (1989–90), where he was one of the first writers hired by editor

Frank Deford Benjamin Franklin Deford III (December 16, 1938 – May 28, 2017) was an American sportswriter and novelist. From 1980 until his death in 2017, he was a regular sports commentator on NPR's ''Morning Edition'' radio program. Deford wrote fo ...

ESPN

Since first appearing on

in 1991, Mortensen has reported for the network's

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning programs '' NFL GameDay/NFL Countdown/Sunday NFL Countdown'' and the ''

Outside the Lines ''Outside the Lines'', or also referred to as ''OTL'', is an American television program on ESPN that looks "outside the lines" and examines critical issues in mostly American sports on and off the field of play. The primary host of the show is ...

'' series. He worked as an analyst for ESPN's coverage of the

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

Domino's controversy

On Dec 30, 2015 Mortensen and Adam Schefter were caught shilling for Dominos on twitter without revealing they had been paid to do so. Mortensen tweeted out "There’s nothing better on NYE than some football and @Dominos #HomeOnNYE". On the same day Schefter tweeted "NYE means college football and @Dominos pizaa. The tweets violated both basic journalistic standards as well as FTC regulations.

Deflategate controversy

On January 21, 2015, Mortensen reported erroneously that 11 of the 12 footballs used in the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015, between the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

and the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

were 2

pounds per square inch The pound per square inch or, more accurately, pound-force per square inch (symbol: lbf/in2; abbreviation: psi) is a unit of pressure or of stress based on avoirdupois units. It is the pressure resulting from a force of one pound-force applied to ...

(PSI) under NFL regulation.Chris Mortensen
"11 of 12 Pats footballs underinflated"
''ESPN'', January 21, 2015; retrieved August 2, 2015. The Wells Report findings showed that only 1 of 22 readings (with each ball tested twice with different gauges except the intercepted ball) showed to be under by 2 PSI. The rest ranged from 1.8 to 0.2 PSI below. Despite being debunked in the Wells report, Mortensen's original story remained posted on ESPN as late as August 13, 2015, with no retraction, clarification or apology. Mortensen was to appear on WEEI's ''

Dennis and Callahan ''Dennis and Callahan'' was an American morning radio show on WEEI-FM, a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts. On November 16, 2010, a live three-hour simulcast began airing on NESN at 6–10 AM Eastern time each weekday. The show ...

'' radio show on July 31, 2015, but cancelled. According to WEEI, Mortensen stated he "will not allow WEEI, atriots owner Robert Kraft or anybody to make me the centerpiece of a story that has been misreported far beyond anything I did in the first 48 hours." On August 3, 2015, Mortensen was interviewed on ESPN's '' Dan Le Batard Show'' regarding his controversial tweet about the under-inflated footballs. Shortly after, he deleted the tweet from

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. As of August 27, 2015, Mortensen stands by his initial report. On August 27, Mortensen claimed on the ''Doug & Wolf Radio Show'' in Arizona that Patriot's Robert and

Jonathan Kraft Jonathan A. Kraft (born March 4, 1964) is an American businessman. He is president of The Kraft Group, the holding company of the Kraft family's business interests. He is also the president of the New England Patriots and investor-operator of the ...

called him and apologized. Jonathan Kraft rejected that claim, stating, "We don’t blame the reporters, we blame their sources... We haven’t pologizedand we have no need to. Our issue is with the people who were leaking misinformation."

Other work

Mortensen is the author of the 1991 book ''Playing for Keeps: How One Man Kept the Mob from Sinking Its Hooks into Pro Football''.

Personal life

Mortensen is married to Micki Mortensen. Their son,

Alex Mortensen Alexander Christian Mortensen (born November 24, 1985) is an American football coach and former quarterback. He played college football at Arkansas and at Samford. He was signed by the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent in 2009. High ...

, is a coach and former professional quarterback. Mortensen is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

. On January 15, 2016, Mortensen announced via an ESPN statement that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4

throat cancer Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...

and would consequently be taking a leave of absence from his on-air work at the cable network.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mortensen, Chris American reporters and correspondents American sports radio personalities American male journalists American sportswriters ESPN.com ESPN people ESPN Radio National Football League announcers United States Army soldiers 1951 births Living people 21st-century American journalists