Chris Mortensen

Journalist 

Chris Mortensen, an award-winning journalist and one of the most respected and accomplished reporters covering the NFL, joined ESPN in 1991 and appears on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown and SportsCenter. He also has contributed to Outside the Lines and coverage of the NFL Draft.

Previously, Mortensen served as the NFL columnist for The Sporting News and was a contributing writer for Sport magazine. He 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 filed investigative reports and covered the Braves (1983-85), Falcons (1985-86) and the NFL (1987-89) for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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. Since starting his career with the South Bay (Calif.) Daily Breeze in 1969, Mortensen has received 18 awards in journalism and been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes. In 1978, he won the National Headliner Award for Investigative Reporting in all categories.

The author of Playing for Keeps: How One Man Kept the Mob From Sinking Its Hooks into Pro Football, Mortensen attended El Camino College before serving two years in the Army.