Chris "Mort" Mortensen (born on November 7, 1951), an award-winning journalist, provides reports for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio and ESPN.com. He also has his own Web page (linked off ESPN.com) that launched in 2000. He had a home in Bella Vista, Arkansas, before it got destroyed by a tornado. Fortunately, none of Mortensen's family was injured in the storm.
Since first appearing on ESPN in 1991, Mortensen has provided reports for the network's Emmy Award-winning programs NFL GameDay/NFL Countdown/Sunday NFL Countdown and the Outside the Lines series. He has also served as an analyst for ESPN's coverage of the NFL Draft.
He previously covered the NFL for The National (1989-90), where he was one of the first writers hired by editor Frank Deford.
From 1983-90 Mortensen worked at the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, filing investigative reports and covering the Atlanta Braves (1983-85), Atlanta Falcons (1985-86) and the NFL (1987-89).
In 1987, he was honored with the George Polk Award for his reporting, and he remains the sole sportswriter to receive the award since Red Smith in 1951. He also worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after beginning his career with The Daily Breeze in his hometown of Torrance, California. Mort says his journalism career began once he realized that he no longer could compete in football, basketball and baseball beyond high school. He foresook his goal of being a teacher and coach when he realized how competitive sports journalism could be - this path taken after he was a "first round draft pick" by the U.S. Army, which he served honorably during the Vietnam conflict.
Since starting his career with the South Bay Daily Breeze (CA) in 1969, Mortensen has received 18 awards in journalism and has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes. In 1978, he won the National Headliner Award for Investigative Reporting in all categories.
Mortensen attended El Camino College before serving two years in the Army He is the author of the 1991 book Playing for Keeps: How One Man Kept the Mob from Sinking Its Hooks into Pro Football, currently out of print.
On January 25th, 2008, Mortensen was the source of rumors regarding a [blank">supposed deep rift] in the _Oakland Raiders front office, whereby owner Al Davis was demanding that first year head coach Lane Kiffin resign and that there were plans in place to hire Denny Green as the replacement. The Raiders have since refuted this while Green has stated that he'd had no recent contact by the organization. The rumors were picked up by many media outlets since and reported as fact.
