L. Jon Wertheim is one of America's most accomplished sports journalists. Wertheim is a Correspondent for 60 MINUTES. He is also Executive Editor of Sports Illustrated, a commentator for the Tennis Channel, and New York Times bestselling author.
In 2017, Wertheim joined CBS News as a correspondent for the network's flagship program 60 MINUTES. Wertheim's first piece for the show was a profile of the Japanese baseball phenom Shohei Otani, foretelling the pitching/hitting superstar's entry into Major League baseball. Since then, Wertheim's work has included interviews with Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Beto O'Rourke ahead of the 2018 Midterms, highlighting Texas' role as a barometer for American politics; a profile of the young adult author John Green; an investigation of San Francisco's leaning skyscraper, the Millennium Tower; and an essayed approach to the idiosyncratic charms and growing pains of Portland, Oregon.
His work for the sports edition of 60 MINUTES included a profile of NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, a news-breaking report on NFL receiver Doug Baldwin and investigation of the relationship between sports and autism.
Wertheim joined Sports Illustrated in 1996, became a senior writer in 1999, and has served as magazine's executive editor since 2012. He is one of the magazine's most authoritative voices on tennis, the NBA, sports business and law, and social issues. One of the chief investigative writers and reporters for Sports Illustrated, Wertheim has explored wide-ranging subject matters, from high school hazing to performance-enhancing drugs and steroids in sports. His weekly Tennis Mailbag on SI.com is considered must reading among tennis aficionados.
Wertheim's work has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series six times, as well as the Best American Crime Writing series, and he is the author of ten books including The New York Times bestsellers Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won (co-written with University of Chicago finance professor Tobias Moskowitz) and You Can't Make This Up (with sportscaster Al Michaels). His book, Strokes of Genius, recounting one of the greatest tennis matches ever played—the Federer-Nadal final at Wimbledon in 2008—was made into a documentary in 2018.
Wertheim also serves as a commentator for the Tennis Channel during its coverage of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments.
A native of Bloomington, Ind., Wertheim is a 1993 graduate of Yale University and received a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. He was a visiting Ferris Professor at Princeton University. He resides in New York City with his wife and two children.
