In Chicago, Lewis Lazare noted no Bears players "figure prominently" in the team's new "Bear Down" campaign for the season, though Mike Ditka "has a memorable cameo appearance." However, this spot mostly is "about real folk." A Chicago firefighter "tells another to bear down as they get into a fire engine and head off to fight another fire." In another sequence, a "young businessman finds the elevator is out of order and prepares to bear down and climb the stairs -- coffee in hand -- to get to his office." Viewers also "see a young boy urging himself to bear down and eat his vegetables" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/25).
BUC STOPS HERE: In Tampa, Gary Shelton writes the Buccaneers' "kinder, friendlier image took a hit" yesterday morning when the team "asked the toxic Richie Incognito to stop by for a visit." Shelton: "Just like that, the Bucs became all about football -- and only about football -- without any pretense of being standing for anything more." The Buccaneers "don't have to offer the guy a job for this to be a terrible idea." To even "allow the locker room conversation to center around Incognito, to allow the rest of the league to chuckle in your direction, is an awful notion." It "suggests that a team will put up with anything, and with anyone, in the name of football." Any other suggestion "is spin-doctoring" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 8/26).
WHAT'S IN A NAME? In Richmond, Michael Paul Williams writes the city, the commonwealth of Virginia and a health care system in partnership with the Redskins "should have some say over the name" of the $10M city-subsidized athletic facility, the Bon Secours Washington Redskins Training Center. Williams writes people cannot control what Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder "calls his team," but they "need to ensure his offense does not become ours." Williams: "The training center should drop 'Redskins' from its name" (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 8/26).
