Forte Plans A Different Kind of Holdout

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Aug 8, 2011 4:45PM

Bears running back Matt Forte wants a new contract and, given his performance since joining the Bears, he can certainly make the case for a bump from the $550,000 he'll earn in the final year of his rookie contract.

But Forte was also smart enough not to hold out when the lockout ended and training camp opened. Management said they intended to discuss an extension with their star running back. Between the craziness of cramming an off-season of roster moves into a couple days and scrambling to get a condensed training camp schedule in place, it clearly wasn't an immediate priority.

Now that the Bears' roster is in place and camp is humming along, Forte is still waiting for his bigger paycheck. To put some pressure on team management, Forte is hinting he will sit out of the team's first preseason game this Saturday night. Forte claims his not suiting up would be an issue of staying healthy. "It's a concern of mine," Forte said. "You don't want to go out there in a preseason game and, God forbid, something happened and then they say, 'Oh, you're injured, we can't give you a new deal.' "

Given the recent issues with Soldier Field's turf, which resulted in the cancellation of Friday's Family Night, Forte has a legitimate case. But given the jostling for roster spots and depth chart status by the other running backs behind him, how much was Lovie Smith going to play his starter anyway? Such threats may mean little unless Forte was willing to sit out a regular season game. Hopefully Jerry Angelo will step up and ink his running back to a long term deal before then.