What happened to Chris Mortensen?

Chris Mortensen, who was known for reporting on the NFL for a long time with ESPN, died on Sunday morning, ESPN said. He was 72 years old.

The details about how he died aren’t clear yet, but Mortensen had been fighting cancer for a while.

ESPN talked about Mortensen’s death on TV on Sunday afternoon, and the NFL Network paid tribute to him during their coverage of the NFL scouting combine.

Mortensen started working at ESPN in 1991 and quickly became one of the best NFL reporters. He was often on the network’s top shows and was the first to tell everyone when big news happened in the league. For example, in 2016, he was the one who said that Peyton Manning, a famous quarterback, was retiring.

Before joining ESPN, Mortensen worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The National. In 2016, he had to stop working for a short time because he was sick with throat cancer. But he came back to TV after he got better. In 2019, his job changed a bit so he could focus more on breaking news.

Last year, Mortensen said he was retiring after the 2023 NFL Draft so he could spend more time on his health, family, and religion.

Mortensen also wrote for The Sporting News and was a consultant for CBS Sports’ “NFL Today.” He started his career in 1969 at the South Bay Daily Breeze in California. He won a total of 18 awards and was nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes during his career.

After ESPN announced his death, many of his former coworkers, friends, and others, including NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, wrote on social media to say how much they would miss him.