Chris Mortensen  Chris Mortensen (born November 7, 1951) is an American journalist providing reports for ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown", "Monday Night Countdown", "SportsCenter", ESPN Radio, and ESPN.com.  Mortensen attended North Torrance High School in Torrance, California, and El Camino College before serving two years in the Army during the Vietnam War. Mortensen says his journalism career began once he realized that he no longer could compete in football, basketball and baseball beyond high school. He forsook his goal of being a teacher and coach when he realized how competitive sports journalism could be. Since starting his career with the "Daily Breeze" newspaper in Torrance, California in 1969, Mortensen has received 18 awards in journalism. In 1978, he won the National Headliner Award for Investigative Reporting in all categories. In 1999, he made a film on "The Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling". From 1983-90, Mortensen worked at the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution", filing investigative reports and covering the Atlanta Braves (1983–85), Atlanta Falcons (1985–86) and the NFL (1987–89). In 1987, he was given the George Polk Award for his reporting. He previously covered the NFL for "The National" (1989–90), where he was one of the first writers hired by editor Frank Deford. Since first appearing on ESPN in 1991, Mortensen has reported for the network's Emmy Award-winning programs "NFL GameDay/NFL Countdown/Sunday NFL Countdown" and the "Outside the Lines" series. He worked as an analyst for ESPN's coverage of the NFL Draft. On January 21, 2015, Mortensen reported erroneously that 11 of the 12 footballs used in the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015, between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts were 2 pounds per square inch (PSI) under NFL regulation. The Wells Report findings showed that only 1 of 22 readings (with each ball tested twice with different gauges except the intercepted ball) showed to be under by 2 PSI. The rest ranged from 1.8 to 0.2 PSI below. Despite being debunked in the Wells report, Mortensen's original story remained posted on ESPN as late as August 13, 2015, with no retraction, clarification or apology. Mortensen was to appear on WEEI's "Dennis and Callahan" radio show on July 31, 2015, but cancelled. According to WEEI, Mortensen stated he "will not allow WEEI, [Patriots owner Robert] Kraft or anybody to make me the centerpiece of a story that has been misreported far beyond anything I did in the first 48 hours."