"A day after the Bears introduced Phil Emery as their general manager, executives from the two Super Bowl teams were relieved two of their staff members aren't headed to Halas Hall.

New York Giants owner John Mara said Tuesday he had a ''long conversation'' with Bears president Ted Phillips about the GM search. Mara also chatted with Bears chairman George McCaskey.

''I had mixed feelings about that,'' Mara told the Sun-Times of the Bears' decision not to hire Giants college-scouting director Marc Ross. ''Marc deserves to be a general manager, as do [director of pro personnel] Dave Gettleman and [assistant GM] Kevin Abrams. But I was happy we were able to keep [Ross].''"