Tribune's Rick Morrissey Headed To Rival Sun-Times

Rick Morrissey sits down with the Bulls' Joakim Noah for an unconventional meal.

Rick Morrissey, a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune since 2000 and Trib employee since 1997, has accepted a position with the rival Chicago Sun-Times.

Tribune writer Phil Rosenthal says of the move:

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 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 in a big way in that the flow of the city's best-known journalists in recent decades has primarily gone from the Sun-Times to the Tribune, not the reverse.

Rosenthal also notes that Morrissey, one of the Trib's two lead sports columnists, is one of the most prominent writers to move from the Trib to the Sun-Times, rather than the other way around. Morrissey recently made waves when he atoned for negative comments he made about Joakim Noah by eating his words (literally).

The news of Morrissey's move came Friday night when Mike Kellams, the Tribune's associate managing editor for sports, wrote: "Rick has been a great colleague at the Tribune and we wish him well in this new chapter of his career."