Chris Mortensen maybe should have practiced what he preached.
One of ESPN’s top NFL reporters, Mortensen was been under fire recently for his handling of a January report in which cited a source that said 11 of the New England Patriots’ 12 footballs in the AFC Championship were significantly underinflated.
That report eventually turned out to be false, yet Mortensen never really backed off it until recently, only deleting his original tweet earlier this month. His handling of the entire situation ruffled feathers for plenty of Patriots fans.
ESPN did apologize to the Patriots on Wednesday night, but that was for recently citing a 2008 Boston Herald report in relation to the Spygate scandal — a report that also was ultimately proved to be false.
Apparently, Mortensen had some strong takes about that Herald report back in 2008, and Larry Brown Sports uncovered a doozy of a quote from Mortensen from back then.
Given everything that’s transpired recently, it’s not a great look for Mortensen.
“Other media outlets, including ESPN, had this allegation and pursued this allegation for months, and it just didn’t meet the standard in terms of what you needed to report it, and the Boston Herald evidently felt they had met the standard to report it,” Mortensen said at the time, according to Larry Brown Sports.
“They need to come out and say, ‘We stand by our story’ or they need to have a retraction and apology and deal with the consequences of it, but certainly it’s damaging to the Boston Herald at this point, especially if they stay silent on the subject.”
Of course, that’s pretty much what every Patriots fan demanded Mortensen do, too.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@ESPNNFL
