Chris Mortenson passes away

Pablo's TB Lover

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 10, 2017
6,016
In terms of the discussion about Mort being unique, he was basically Will McDonough with less writing/more airtime. Much like Willie had his cronies and people he wanted to grind an ax with (Bill Parcells as the former and Roger Clemens as the latter), Mort was much the same way but didn't have a popular column like Will had to where we could see in the open where his allegiances were. However it was plainly obvious that the league office could piss on him and say it was raining, based on his reporting.

To mourn, Irsay will take 11 of the 12 drugs he currently has on hand.
This is good. The one drug he didn't take: the red pill.
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,889
I've always felt weird about having this name, I got it right around around when he started that segment, but it was centered around my frat brothers a year before finding a goalie jersey I had my senior year in high school that since I joined the team late and it had a different last name than mine, so everyone called me Mort(short for the other last name) for a while. Then I just became "The Mort Report!" and it stuck. Due to my mixed views on him, I've always wanted a new handle, but I could never find I liked.

That being said, a woman lost her husband, and a son lost his father, something that hits really close to home recently, and dragging a guy that just died and left family behind just because he had shitty reporting on (most of)our favorite football team feels slimy
Post Mort(em) report?
 

Old Fart Tree

the maven of meat
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2001
14,142
Boulder, CO
Ya’ll must be fun at parties. He was horribly wrong at one point (of prejudice) but completely changed a lot of how we consumed football. Shiiiiiiit, I got shit here for not caring about the death of a war criminal, and this is ok on the public side?
His corpse can eat a bag.
 

RG33

Certain Class of Poster
SoSH Member
Nov 28, 2005
7,239
CA
Yeah, fuck this guy. I’ve been rooting for Cancer for a decade on this one.
 

GB5

New Member
Aug 26, 2013
690
To me the problem was not his mis-reporting the DG story, which really ignited the national cry out on the matter, but rather in not taking it down after he knew it was wrong, inaccurate and damaging.

He was asked once and replied something to the affect of he didn’t know how to take down a tweet. That pissed me off more than anything. Even if you want to suspend believability for a second and buy that BS, um Mort, you have access at work to thousands of people with technical capacity to do it in 3 seconds. I may personally have found room to forgive him for the initial posting of the tweet but I never forgave the outrageous story he concocted after the fact.
 

Granite Sox

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 6, 2003
5,066
The Granite State
In terms of the discussion about Mort being unique, he was basically Will McDonough with less writing/more airtime. Much like Willie had his cronies and people he wanted to grind an ax with (Bill Parcells as the former and Roger Clemens as the latter), Mort was much the same way but didn't have a popular column like Will had to where we could see in the open where his allegiances were. However it was plainly obvious that the league office could piss on him and say it was raining, based on his reporting.
Not for nuthin', but he did have a McDonough-type of newspaper forum at the AJC and The National (with Frank Deford as Editor in Chief):
Deford immediately set out to get what was referred to by Bill Simmons as a "murderer's row" of sportswriters to join The National.[2] Deford said that hiring Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports editor Van McKenzie away from the paper was the "best thing he did" and was the linchpin for getting many of the writers who eventually signed up to write for The National interested.[2] Once McKenzie was hired, he brought his auto racing writer Ed Hinton and investigative reporter and NFL analyst Chris Mortensen with him. Norman Chad, who was writing for The Washington Post at the time, was hired, as was New York Daily News writer Mike Lupica, Rocky Mountain News writer Jay Mariotti, Wrestling Observer Newsletter writer Dave Meltzer, The Dallas Morning News writer Ivan Maisel, The Boston Globe writer Leigh Montville, and various others. Tony Kornheiser considered taking a job with the National but decided to stay at The Washington Post.[3]
Quite the crew.

Mortensen was a Grade A Sellout, and wore his Scarlet 'S' proudly.

Like others, I'm not happy that he has died but I do regard him with contempt for the way he handled his business.
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
27,121
Newton
In fairness to Chris, it’s one story. One he really fucked up that impacted my favorite team but one.

And if Frank Deford admired his work and hired him, that says a lot. Deford was a god.

Edit: it’s worth reading the whole thread on that @Chad Finn post.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 10, 2017
6,016
Not for nuthin', but he did have a McDonough-type of newspaper forum at the AJC and The National (with Frank Deford as Editor in Chief):


Quite the crew.

Mortensen was a Grade A Sellout, and wore his Scarlet 'S' proudly.

Like others, I'm not happy that he has died but I do regard him with contempt for the way he handled his business.
Thanks for the correction: I wasn't fully up to speed on his print history, being that I was 14 when he started on ESPN and always pegged the TV side as his primary career.
 

j-man

Member
Dec 19, 2012
3,692
Arkansas
i liked him because he lived in favatvillie he been haveing cander for 4 to 5 years off and on hopefully he is in a better place
 

Auger34

used to be tbb
SoSH Member
Apr 23, 2010
9,684
He was one of the biggest Draftniks on ESPN. He was the face of the NFL Draft. He was the guy. I didn’t care much one or the way or the other, but he was so up and front of every draft I watched. He fucked up big time on the pats. Boo-hoo get over it. I enjoyed our run and liked watching the draft.

Dancing on his grave is very weird (not in response to jonabbey)
Mort was Schefter before Schefter. He was the big NFL reporter who had the most sources at the NFL. He was probably the first person of his ilk to get on TV.