KNOCK ON WOOD : Mortensen has a lot to smile about
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
Chris Mortensen loves his job as ESPN's senior NFL analyst. In fact, he told a gathering of an estimated 125 Shiloh Christian football supporters at a luncheon Thursday in the Gatheria of the Church at Pinnacle Hills that it's the greatest job in the world.
But like the rest of us, there are times when he wants to get away for a little while. One of those times is to attend church services.
Because the NFL plays the bulk of its schedule on Sundays, Mortensen is unable to attend Sunday morning worship services with his family very often during the season.
On one Sunday following the end of the NFL season while attending church, a man at the end of his aisle had zeroed in on Mortensen. No doubt, celebrities such as Mortensen can feel the glances of fans before they ever see where the stares are coming from.
"I see the guy and think, ' Oh man, I'm going to have to talk football in church. ' I tried to wait him out, but I had to leave at some point so we made our way down the aisle.
"When I got to him, he said, ' I know you from somewhere. ' As I was gathering my thoughts of what to say, he said'I know ! You work at the Garden Center at Wal-Mart. ."
If that wasn't a big enough gig at Mortensen's ego, his wife, Micki, added her two cents as they walked to the parking lot.
"The Lord will humble the proud," she quipped.
Mortensen showed his humility saying he stumbled into his NFL reporting job with ESPN after being a print reporter.
But Mortensen wasn't just any reporter. He was a columnist for The Sporting News and a contributing writer to Sport magazine and was one of the first writers Frank Deford hired for The National, the now defunct national sports newspaper. He also was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
However making the transition from the newsroom to a TV set wasn't as easy as it looked. The first year on the job Mortensen said he wasn't having fun and it showed. His producer suggested he loosen up and have fun.
"It don't think I smiled the first couple of months on the air," Mortensen said.
But a friend experienced in TV told him he needed to develop a fake smile. Mortensen said he tired a number of different grins in the mirror that week before settling on one.
"I went through my report and at the end I gave them my new fake smile," Mortensen said while sporting a toothy grin.
When the program went to break, his producer buzzed him and asked why he smiled at the end of his report. Mortensen retorted "You told me to have fun and smile."
But, the producer pointed out that Mortensen had just reported that Ron Meyer would be fired as the Indianapolis Colts head coach and "that he really did look happy about it."
After sharing those anecdotes, Mortensen took a few questions from the audience and fired a few good-natured jabs at Dallas Cowboys fans, who seemed to be the majority in the crowd.
In response to questions, Mortensen said • Regardless of what has been said in public, had Darren McFadden slipped to seventh in the draft, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would have been on the phone with the New England Patriots in an attempt to get the Hogs' all-time leading rusher. He added that a deal might not have been worked out, but that Jones would have tried.
• The Cowboys were very happy to have Felix Jones and that he personally believes the Tulsa native will be every bit as effective in the NFL as he was at Arkansas. He believes Jones and Marion Barber will be a fine one-two punch.
• That scratch golfer Tony Romo's attempt to qualify for the U. S. Open would not be a hindrance to his play with the Cowboys next year.
"If it gets to be, Tony would be the first one to pull the plug on it," Mortensen said.
• The Razorbacks would be competitive this year, but the Hogs face some tough times until new head coach Bobby Petrino is able to recruit his players into the program. He added that this will be the first time in seven seasons that Arkansas fans have not had players like Matt Jones, Darren McFadden and Felix Jones to watch. He called them once every 20 years type players and that Arkansas was fortunate enough to have them on campus back to back.
Terry J. Wood is the sports editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times.
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