Who is Chris Mortensen?
American journalist Chris Mortensen was born in Torrance, California USA, on 7 November 1951, meaning that his zodiac sign’s Scorpio. He’s perhaps best known for having provided reports on various ESPN shows, such as “ESPN Radio”, “Monday Night Countdown”, and “Sunday NFL Countdown”.
Education and early life
Chris was raised in Torrance by his parents, but being as respective of their privacy as he is, he hasn’t shared many details about them; it’s believed that his father was a church minister, and his mother a piano teacher. Chris hasn’t spoken of having siblings, so his fans believe that he’s an only child.
He studied at North Torrance High School, and it was during his four years that he became interested in sports. Chris played football and basketball for the school teams, while he also enjoyed playing baseball and soccer with his friends in his spare time. He matriculated in 1970 and continued his education at El Camino College, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 1973.
Chris then joined the US Army, serving two years during the Vietnam War, and continued his career as a journalist upon leaving the service.
Chris’ career
Chris has revealed that he chose to become a journalist after realizing that he wasn’t able to continue playing sports after he matriculated; he also considered becoming a high school teacher or a football coach, after having learned about the competiveness in sports journalism.
He was 17 when he began writing for the newspaper “Daily Breeze”, and has since won 18 awards for his reports – most notably, a 1978 National Headliner Award for Investigative Reporting.
Chris worked for various newspapers from 1969 through 1983, without attracting a lot of attention, and he gained recognition only in 1983, when hired to work at the major daily newspaper “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution”; he was in charge of covering the Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Atlanta Braves for his first two years there, and then the National Football League (NFL) team the Atlanta Falcons in 1985 and 1986. From 1987 until leaving the newspaper in 1990, Chris was covering NFL.
One of the rewarding experiences in 30 years at ESPN has been working with my dear friend @AdamSchefter, the best of the best.
Happy Birthday, Adam, and many more! pic.twitter.com/KCETmc2Mgs— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) December 21, 2020
He also simultaneously covered NFL for the sports-centered newspaper “The National Sports Daily” in 1989 and 1990; in 1991, Chris published his book “Playing for Keeps: How a Man Kept Mob from Sinking Its Hooks into Football”.
He was hired by ESPN in 1991, and could since have been seen discussing NFL in some of their Emmy Award-winning shows, such as “Outside the Lines”, “NFL Countdown”, and “NFL GameDay”; he was also an analyst for the covering of the NFL Draft.
In 1999, Chris made the documentary movie “The Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling”.
He’s now been working for ESPN for more than 30 years now.
Controversy
Chris reported on 21 January 2015 that 11 of the 12 footballs which were used in a game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots were 2 PSI below the NFL regulation; his report was found to be false, but Chris refused to apologize, and has to this day believed that he was right.
In December 2015, Chris tweeted about how good Dominos pizza was without revealing that he had been paid to promote it; this meant that he had violated Federal Trade Commission regulations, and basic journalistic standards.
Health update
Chris revealed on 15 January 2016 that he’d been diagnosed with Stage 4 throat cancer, and would be taking some time off on-air work.
He began undergoing intensive chemotherapy, and in only half a year the cancer was gone from his tongue and throat. He returned to work in September 2016, but learned that his cancer had returned only two months later, and had spread to his left lung. Chris revealed in 2017 that his doctors had told him that his fight against cancer might go on for the rest of his life, but his original site (throat) was still clean at the close of 2017.
Chris has lost quite a lot of weight since he began battling cancer, but hasn’t spoken of his condition since 2018.
Love life and wife
Although Chris shies away from sharing the details of his love life with the public, it’s still known that he’s today a married man. He exchanged vows with his long-term girlfriend Micki Mortensen in 1984, but neither has shared many other details about the ceremony; Micki’s a non-celebrity American, and her profession remains undisclosed.
On 24 November 1985, Micki gave birth to their son Alexander Christian ‘Alex’ Mortensen, and he went on to become a football quarterback, then retiring and becoming a football coach; just recently, on 2 December 2022, he became the offensive co-ordinator for the University of Alabama’s Blazers.
Chris hasn’t mentioned other women whom he’s dated; he’s married to Micki Mortensen as of December 2022, and they have a son together.
Interesting facts and hobbies
Chris isn’t active on Instagram, but has a Twitter account which he uses to share various NFL news with his fans; he launched the account in April 2009, and there are over 2.2 million people following him, while he’s tweeted nearly 27,000 times.
He’s been all around the US thanks to his career, visiting every state, and he’s also travelled overseas on many occasions; some of Chris’ favorite countries to visit are Brazil, France and England.
He’s a philanthropist, and has donated money to organizations which are trying to cure cancer, as well as to charities working with war veterans.
Chris loves animals, and his favorites are wolves and dogs.
He enjoys watching movies in his spare time, and his favorite actors are Eddie Redmayne and Anthony Hopkins, while some of his favorite films are “The Good Nurse”, “The Miraculous Year”, and “Early Man”.
Height, eyes and wealth
Chris’ age is 71. He has brown eyes and short brown and grey hair, his height is 6ft 1in (1.85m) and he weighs around 175lbs (80kgs).
Chris’ net worth’s been estimated at more than $6 million, as of December 2022.
