A Very Nice Guy

Well I added to my list today of interesting folks I’ve met at airports. When he walked by I knew he looked familiar. I asked my co-worker who is traveling with me if Jimmy Swaggart just walked by. He laughed and quickly identified the famous sports announcer.

After getting up the nerve (just kidding) I went over to introduce myself and in just a few minutes we were having a conversation with ESPN television journalist Chris Mortensen.

For you non sports minded folks, you can see Chris on the tube most anytime shows such as ESPN SportsCenter, Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown happen to be playing. He is an award winning journalist and one of the most respected and accomplished NFL reporters on television.

We found out today that he is also a very nice guy.


We learned some other things too. We learned that for every hour someone like Chris is on the air, there have been at least three hours of preparation and study for whatever the topic may be. We learned he and his wife live in Atlanta and also have a house in Northwest Arkansas. I think we already knew that ESPN studio is in Bristol CT but we figured out that Chris travels a lot. We also learned that Chris’ son Alex was backup quarterback for the University of Arkansas and will graduate this year. He also found out that Chris had to charter a private jet service to get to his son’s games. Although he didn’t get to play much, Chris was there anyway. He even showed us a picture of his son on the field that serves as his background picture on his laptop.

We also learned Chris Mortensen is a walking sports encyclopedia who has built a ton of relationships in the sports world. But we learned he is much more than that. In spite of his own stardom and in spite of all the famous sports folks he knows and has known for years, he seemed most proud that he is a dad.

Just in case you haven’t figured it out, I became a Chris Mortensen fan today.