http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 549.column=========================================
Those innovative ads the Chicago Bears and Chicago Blackhawks shot together in October?
The ones with Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews trading passing tips, and the Bears' Lance Briggs and the Hawks' Brent Seabrook talking about big hits?
They're never going to see the light of day, by order of the National Football League.
Another interception. It's been that kind of season for the Bears.
And it's an unexpected setback in what, to this point, has been a largely charmed Hawks season, especially because it was the hockey team footing the bill for the "Crosstown Supporters" campaign crafted by Ogilvy & Mather.
The idea was to partner on a campaign that would allow these elder teams in their respective leagues to ride each other's coattails. They thought it would be fun and wanted to give their players a chance to show a little personality.
The NFL wanted something else, so the two old-school franchises received an old schoolteacher's rap on the knuckles from a league that built itself into a sports, media and marketing juggernaut in no small measure because of how zealously it guards its licenses and rights.
The NFL prohibits use of team marks and logos in connection with the promotion of other sports except by a three-quarters vote of the league's 32 clubs, according to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.
The league saw no gray area, which is probably why the Bears-Hawks ads were thought to be unprecedented.
"We felt it was within the framework of the spirit of what the rule was," said Scott Hagel, Bears senior director of corporate communications. "They felt differently, and we have to respect their decision."
Five commercials teaming players -- Cutler, Briggs, Devin Hester, Robbie Gould and Greg Olsen from the Bears; Toews, Seabrook, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and Brian Campbell from the Hawks -- were shot at Lake Forest's Halas Hall on a rare off day shared by both teams.
The Hawks ponied up the cash to produce the ads and pledged to buy time and place the spots. But, publicly at least, it doesn't appear there are hard feelings, just regret.
"We still continue to have a strong bond with their organization, and we'll explore other opportunities that are within the parameters of the NFL," Blackhawks spokesman Brandon Faber said. "We're certainly big fans of theirs."
Jay Blunk, Hawks senior vice president of business operations, had said the genesis of the campaign was a National Hockey League executives meeting in May. Someone there said 92 percent of NHL fans are also NFL fans.
"I remember writing the word 'Bears' and circling it," Blunk said in October. "The Blackhawks are an up-and-coming brand, on the move. But the Chicago Bears are an iconic international brand. So when it came to attaching our brand to something with great credibility and great reach, there was no bigger fish than the Chicago Bears. We were very fortunate the Bears allowed us to do this."
Unfortunately, it turns out they didn't have the final say.
"We're disappointed that the fans won't get to see the end point of the project," Hagel said. "The Blackhawks organization as a whole was phenomenal through the whole process, even when the league told us we couldn't participate anymore. So we couldn't have more respect for them."
Reverse play: Sports columnist Rick Morrissey has left the Chicago Tribune for the rival Chicago Sun-Times, the Tribune's staff was told Friday night.
"Rick has been a great colleague at the Tribune, and we wish him well in this new chapter of his career," Mike Kellams, the Tribune's associate managing editor for sports, wrote in a memo.
As significant as the move is by virtue of a top columnist switching papers, it looms even larger as a statement by parent Sun-Times Media Group and the way it runs counter to recent trends.
Only a couple months ago, the Sun-Times and its sister papers teetered on the brink of liquidation but were rescued by a new ownership group led by businessman Jim Tyree and other local investors, including Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz.
The new owners obviously are looking to make a splash. Hiring Morrissey does that because the flow of the city's best-known journalists in recent decades has primarily been from the Sun-Times to the Tribune, not the reverse. (More at chicagotribune.com/phil.)
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