RIP Chris Mortensen

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

You buried the lede two-thirds of the way down in that Ragu-length paragraph!

In all seriousness, this is the problem. We go for the dopamine quick hits, even if the quick hit is a useless morsel about a team cutting their third-string center. And I imagine those guys who deliver those hits get the same feeling when they report them out.

The last guys out there who can write and break bombs regularly are Passan and Woj. And I don't think Woj has written anything longer than six inches in a decade.

It was like one-third of the way down, ****!

I'm not even sure Passan can write much anymore. None of his longer stuff leaves me all that jazzed. I'd argue Rosenthal is the last vestige of a news breaker who can also write well and long.

 

[playthrough]

I have to admit I haven't read all of King's Farewell Column Part 2: Electric Boogaloo and am generally not into football deep dives outside of New Jersey's embarrassments, so this theory may be easily exposed (a bad take by me? never!!!). But from my vantage point, it feels like the soulless info merchants (Schefter & Rapoport) are the new currency. King had a built-in audience from his print work and jumped to the Internet when people still used it to actually learn **** and not to hang out in an echo chamber and/or feel informed by reading the summary of a link. Nobody really reads anymore. Everyone just wants to opine on the big moves, and Schefter and Rapoport do that. Does anyone remember the last interesting thing Schefter or Rapoport wrote? Is anyone outside of writers like us looking for the next King?

I was mocking King just a few weeks ago for a tepid Super Bowl take, but he would at least offer up mild criticisms of the league (usually after someone else did the dirty work, of course) and he made up for his meh writing skills with dogged reporting and some legitimate curiosity that unearthed interesting stories about the league and its players. He rarely left you saying oh wow that was well-written, but he grinded for the access he got and made the most of it. Can you imagine Schefter giving a **** about how the 4th-and-1 in OT was converted? Does he even remember it happened? And can you imagine him waiting to talk to Mahomes about it for more than a week? King was definitely compromised by his access--hard not to be at that level, outside of maybe Ken Rosenthal--but he more often than not tried to turn it into something semi-permanent instead of just another release of BREAKING NEWS dopamine.

Along those lines, I wonder if Florio is the closest thing he has to a successor. He's gets his share of SCOOPZ and he's still got a little bit of a rabble rouser to him despite being part of The Machine. He had a good bit earlier this week about the inevitability of the 18-game schedule and how all these broken bodies just aren't enough for the NFL.

"Soulless info merchants," yep. The only Schefter thing I can recall recently that wasn't his transactional stuff was when he was in the MNF studio during the Damar Hamlin game, having the same sober tone as the others at the table with limited information, and I remember thinking "do we really need you here?" His attempts to have a soul don't do much for me.

 

[User 149557]

“Assault.”

That’s the last thing I remember from Schefter.

 

[swingline]

“Assault.”*

That’s the last thing I remember from Schefter.

* Full brother of, no doubt.

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[Neutral Corner]

"I got to attend my friend Chris Mortensen's funeral today."

They held up the funeral for two months? Or was this just written and posted? Seems strange.

 

[swingline]

Memorial service is probably more accurate.

 

[dixiehack]

Which would make sense if they were waiting until people in the business were free after the draft.

 

[wicked]

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If we all could have such a powerful tribute after we're gone.