Chris Mortensen is an American journalist. Mortensen attended North Torrance High School in Torrance, California, and El Camino College before serving two years in the Army during the Vietnam War.
As of 2021, he provides reports for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, and ESPN.com. Mortensen says his journalism career began once he realized that he no longer could compete in football, basketball and baseball beyond high school. 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. 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 15, 2016, Mortensen announced via an ESPN statement that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 throat cancer and would consequently be taking a leave of absence from his on-air work at the cable network.