Chris Mortensen’s Legacy Is Highlighted by What He Did On and Off the Air

Also in Traina Thoughts: Spring training game features hilarious fight; Steve Cohen gets defensive about Mets Dance Team; The Rock is putting in work and more.

1. My first thought when I read about the passing of ESPN's Chris Mortensen on Sunday was about how cool sports newsbreakers were back in the day before the internet.

And by newsbreakers in that era, it was about two men: Mortensen and Peter Gammons.

While the Woj Bomb has become a thing now anytime Adrian Wojnarowski drops a massive trade or signing on Twitter, for those of us who grew up in the Golden Age of ESPN with the Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann SportsCenter and Chris Berman and Tom Jackson anchoring NFL PrimeTime, you found out about trades and signings and firings and inside information from Mortensen and Gammons—on television.

And it was a rush. And it felt big. And it felt cool. If you were a big football fan or baseball fan, you automatically felt a connection with Mortensen and Gammons because, in a way, it seemed like they were telling you secrets. 

You desperately wanted to see Mortensen or Gammons on ESPN because it meant they made you feel like you were on the inside.

I never had any interaction with Mortensen and regretfully, never had him on the SI Media Podcast, despite him always being on my list of potential guests.

Clearly, based on the response to Mortensen's passing at the age of 72, I missed out on never having any communication with him because the tributes that poured in were consistent in two themes: Mortensen was an outstanding person and he was extremely generous to everyone in the business.

The remembrances have been overwhelming since news of Mortensen's passing broke Sunday afternoon, but two stood out to me and are worth your time.

The NFL Network's Rich Eisen and Daniel Jeremiah offered a raw and emotional tribute to their colleague.

.@movethesticks and @richeisen honor the memory of the legendary Chris Mortensen, who passed away today at the age of 72.

Our thoughts are with his family and the ESPN family. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ehkj1BYar2

— NFL (@NFL) March 3, 2024

ESPN's tribute video, narrated by Adam Schefter, which detailed Mortensen's career as well as his battle with cancer, was a powerful as it gets.

.@notthefakeSVP and @AdamSchefter honor Chris Mortensen, “a Hall of Famer in every sense of the word.” ❤️ pic.twitter.com/2Grh8nJFMR

— ESPN (@espn) March 4, 2024

2. Now for some lightheartedness. The SNY broadcasters did a great job during Sunday’s Houston Astros–New York Mets spring training game calling the action between two little kids throwing down.

The play-by-play on this brother vs brother brawl on the @SNYtv broadcast is absolutely killing me 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/cXk3FhRPay

— Alex Fast (@AlexFast8) March 3, 2024

3. A Google search shows that Mets owner Steven Cohen is worth anywhere from $14 to $19 billion. Yet, he's on Twitter getting all salty because a fan knocked the Mets for creating a dance team for the 2024 season. Steve, delete Twitter and go have fun spending your money.

Excellent point . I forgot how serious baseball is relative to other sports

— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) March 2, 2024

4. This article by Awful Announcing breaks down and has video of Gus Johnson discussing prop bets during Sunday’s Ohio State Buckeyes–Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball game and I don’t see the problem with it all. There should be more of this on sports telecasts.

5. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is not half-assing his WWE return in any way, shape or form. 

On Friday, he posted a 21-minute video on social media hyping up is feud with Cody Rhodes and then later that night he did a 30-minute segment with Roman Reigns, that featured The Rock's exceptional mic work on SmackDown. 

A message from The People’s Champ @wwe @tkogrp pic.twitter.com/s2yy6gYTTz

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 1, 2024

6. The latest episode of the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast features an interview with WFAN/CBS Sports Network morning radio host, Gregg Giannotti.

Giannotti, who co-hosts the highly successful Boomer & Gio show, talks about how he balances doing a radio show for a New York audience and a TV show for a national audience, explains how he formats the show and reveals why Boomer Esiason never knows the opening topic before the show begins.

Giannotti also discusses the importance of covering non-sports stories, the recent mishap when his show booked the wrong Randy Moss at the Super Bowl, how he assesses ratings and much more.

Following the interview with Giannotti, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins us for the weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment. This week's topics include whether you should tell your significant other if you have a huge gambling win, the We Are The World documentary on Netflix, the court-storming controversy in college basketball and more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 70th birthday to Catherine O’Hara, who has a truly legendary 1–2 résumé punch of Home Alone and Schitt's Creek.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.