Chris Mortensen Announces Retirement From ESPN
It’s officially the end of an era. The 2023-24 NFL Season is about to start and it’s the first one we will endure without Chris Mortensen for the first time in 33 years. I haven’t even been alive that long despite whatever the dummy in the comments section wants to tell you (link to inside joke). The man who hates Ian Rapoport with a passion is calling it quits at ESPN.
Technically, Mortensen has been retired since after the 2023 NFL Draft but the news was just leaked today.
“Excited about another season but it’s time to reveal after my 33rd NFL draft in April, I made a decision to step away from ESPN and focus on my health, family and faith,” Mortensen tweeted. “The gratitude and humility is overwhelming. It’s not a classic retirement. I’ll still be here talking ball. It’s just time. God Bless you all.”
In the here and now, I’m not sure how much this will really change ESPN. Mort has been phased out of programming in recent years. Everybody knows that Adam Schefter is the face of the NFL reporting game at ESPN. When ESPN was at it’s heyday, Mortensen’s “Inside the Huddle” segments were must-see TV. Those days with Chris Berman are long gone, however, and they’re never coming back.
It was probably time to call it quits anyway. Chris Mortensen has battled esophageal cancer since the early stages of 2016. We here at Vendetta Sports Media wish him the best in his days post-retirement.
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