Colleagues salute Chris Mortensen for breaking Manning story

Al Messerschmidt/NFL

ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen with Peyton Manning, then of the Indianapolis Colts, in 2005.

In a rare moment in the cut-throat world of media, the scooped paid homage to the scooper.

On Sunday morning, shortly after ESPN’s Chris Mortensen took to Twitter to break the news of Peyton Manning’s retirement, Fox’s Jay Glazer, a primary competitor, tweeted: “Happy for Peyton Manning riding off on his own terms….happier that @mortreport kicked my ass on this story!”

In mid-January, Mortensen,64, said he was taking a leave of absence from his NFL Insider duties to begin undergoing treatments for Stage IV throat cancer. “I have a peace about this and look forward to the battle,” Mortensen said at the time.

Mortensen had not been heard from since then. His delivering the Manning scoop was a reporting coup for him and a win for the Bristol Faculty, but it clearly also was a source of inspiration for even his competitors.

“Having a stronger emotion about @mortreport being the one to break the Manning news than the fact Manning is retiring,” tweeted Melissa Jacobs, NFL Editor @sinow.

Peter King, the veteran Sports Illustrated NFL scribe, put it simply Tweeting: “Mort breaks it.”

Ron Borges, who has covered the NFL many moons for the Boston Herald, tweeted: “Kudos to Mort. Can’t keep a tough guy down! Great get.”

And the Adam Schefter, the ESPN NFL reporter who works closely with Mortensen, said it for a lot of his colleagues, tweeting: “Mort’s the man.”

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