"The Bears whittled their list of five general-manager candidates to two, and they'll conduct a second round of interviews with Phil Emery of the Kansas City Chiefs and Jason Licht of the New England Patriots later this week at Halas Hall.

Eliminated from contention were Marc Ross of the New York Giants, Jimmy Raye of the San Diego Chargers and Tim Ruskell, the Bears' director of player personnel.

The Bears were free to interview Emery at any time. But they needed written permission from the Patriots to interview Licht again because New England will play in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 against the Giants in Indianapolis."