Chris Mortensen’s WEEI No-Show Drips Irony
As much as we don’t like to report on reporters reporting on things, veteran NFL reporter Chris Mortensen was scheduled for an appearance on WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan show this morning, only to adapt the credo of Paul Rudd’s surfer character in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” – “When life hands you lemons, just say f*** the lemons and bail”.
Just before the Dennis & Callahan show went on the air this morning, Mortensen backed out of his scheduled 7:45am appearance and issued the following explanation, according to Pro Football Talk:
“You guys made a mistake by drumming up business for the show and how I would address my reporting for the first time,” Mortensen informed WEEI. “I 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. Maybe when the lawsuit is settled, in Brady’s favor, I hope, we can revisit. Don’t call.”
Chris Mortensen, of course, was the reporter that broke the bombshell news that 11 of the 12 Patriots footballs from the AFC Championship game were 2.0 pounds under 12.5 PSI. That report turned out to be completely incorrect, as the Wells report stated that, depending on which set of measurements you looked at, either one football was 2.0 PSI under the league minimum, or none of them were, since the two gauges used to measure the balls at the game yielded different measurements.
Read that again. Mortensen’s report, which came out months before the Wells report effectively corrected it, could almost literally have not been more factually incorrect, and Mort has yet to publicly address reporting blatantly wrong information. The NFL also hasn’t said a peep about it.
So, a few hours before being scheduled to appear on one of Boston’s most prominent radio shows, he bails, under the pretense of being made the centerpiece of a story that has been misreported from the beginning.
This, coming from a well-respected reporter who, whether accidentally or deliberately, reported a damning accusation against the Patriots, and by extension, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and Robert Kraft. Remember, in Ballghazi’s infant days, there was no knowledge of a “Deflator”; it was assumed by nearly everyone, after Mort’s bombshell, that Belichick and Brady were up to their old cheating ways again and that Robert Kraft was totally OK with it as long as the Pats kept winning.
Breaking news, dude: YOU ARE one of the centerpieces of a story that has been misreported from the beginning.
What the hell did Mortensen expect a Boston sports radio show to ask him about?
More likely than not, Mort was fed (inarguably) bad information by his sources. It happens. But to cop out of a scheduled appearance because he thinks they’ll ask him about a controversy involving one of the league’s biggest players and a resulting decision designed to damn New England’s season with a suspension and hamstring their next couple seasons by forfeiting draft picks that blew up because of an erroneous report Mort made?
It takes a special kind of hubris to pull that off.
Just don’t accept the invite next time, K?