It's long been assumed this would be Peyton Manning's last year as an NFL player, especially after winning Super Bowl 50. ESPN's Chris Mortensen ended up with the story and broke it early Sunday morning:
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But this wasn't just any story and Mortensen wasn't just breaking news like he typically does. Here's Peter King at MMQB explaining what went down, per FTW:
"So it wasn't until Chris Mortensen of ESPN reported just after 7 a.m. Eastern on Sunday that Manning was retiring that people knew for sure it was over. How did they know for sure? Because Manning and Mortensen are close. Mortensen is currently a patient at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, being treated for a life-threatening form of throat cancer. Mortensen is not working right now as he receives treatment, but he broke the definitive news on Manning, which said to everyone in the business: Peyton Manning is taking care of Mortensen. A cool thing to do—if that's how it happened."
Our thoughts and prayers remain with Mortensen and his family as he fights cancer. But it's certainly a very cool retirement gift that Manning sent his biggest story to the ESPN veteran.
