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Georgetown Lombardi Award recipient Chris Mortensen (center) with “NFL Countdown” crew before they hustled back to Bristol
Photo by: COURTESY OF ADAM SHEFTER
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I witnessed a touching moment in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 29, as the NFL Players Association honored ESPN’s Chris Mortensen with the Georgetown Lombardi Award, given annually to people whose lives have been touched by cancer. In January, Mortensen announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer.
Much of the evening’s emotion came from the fact that nine members of the “NFL Countdown” crew surprised Mortensen by traveling from Bristol to D.C. for the event.
“I was just blown away,” he said. “My first thought was, ‘How are they going to pull off ‘NFL Countdown’ the next day?’ I know the demands of doing a show on Sunday. You have to be locked in all day Saturday.”
Mortensen flew into town earlier that day — the first time he had taken a commercial flight since his diagnosis. He checked into the Washington Hilton and called his colleague, Adam Schefter of “NFL Insiders,” around 3:30 p.m. to share some news tips. Schefter didn’t pick up the phone, texting back that he was at his son’s football game and it was too loud to talk.
In reality, Schefter was at the airport with the rest of his colleagues, preparing to fly to D.C.
“I thought that was strange because I’ve been to those football games, and I know that they are not that loud,” Mortensen said.
He took a nap at 4 p.m. to be well-rested for the event. He overslept and had to rush down to a silent auction that was taking place beforehand. As Mortensen walked into the room, he was stunned to see Schefter standing there.
“Then I turned around and saw Seth, Stephanie, Suzy, Merril, Berman,” Mortensen said, referring to senior coordinating producer Seth Markman, senior vice president of event and studio production Stephanie Druley, anchor Suzy Kolber, analyst Merril Hoge and host Chris Berman. “I couldn’t believe they were there. I was totally blindsided and in a state of shock.”
Producer Matt Garrett, coordinating producer Mike Cambareri and associate sports scout Joey Roberts also attended.
ESPN’s table in the front of the room cleared out soon after Mortensen accepted the award, as they were on an evening flight back to Connecticut and on air the following day.
— John Ourand
