Chicago Bears – Brian Urlacher may sit

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Brian Urlacher wants more cash

Image details: Chicago Bears v Minnesota Vikings served by picapp.com

What is it about the Bears?

Do they just not like linebackers?

Or do they just not like to pay linebackers?

You remember the franchising of linebacker Lance Briggs and all the acrimony that went with it?

Now it is on to Brian Urlacher.

Brian Urlacher says his arthritic back feels great and his surgically repaired neck is fine. However, don’t expect Urlacher to get his mind right until the star middle linebacker’s contract dispute with the Chicago Bears is resolved.

On Monday Urlacher, who has stayed away from the Bears’ voluntary offseason workouts, told Yahoo! Sports he expected to boycott the team’s mandatory minicamp from May 30 to June 1 because of his dissatisfaction with management’s lax response to his requests for a raise.

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The odd thing here is that Brian has 4 years left on his deal. Four years!

Urlacher, who has four years remaining on the nine-year, $56.5-million contract extension he signed in 2003, realizes that his stance is not a popular one. But the six-time Pro Bowl performer, who was the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 2005, believes he has outperformed his deal and is frustrated that he’s no longer the highest-paid player on his team. According to NFLPA documents, eight Bears earned more than he did last season.

“It’s easy for people to criticize me for wanting (a new deal), and I understand that it’s a contract and I signed it,” Urlacher said. “But this is the NFL, and if I’d signed it and I’d played like (expletive), they’d have cut me or tried to get me to take less. In my mind, there’s no difference. If they can ‘break’ a contract, I have a right to ask for more if I play well enough.

“When I signed my deal the salary cap was $75 million. It’s what, $116 million now? Things have changed.

It is hard to see the Bears relenting in this deal. The kind of message it sends is wrong. But relenting may not be changing something, throwing a bone to keep Brian happy. He is, after all, the center piece of their defense and it is their defense that took them to the Super Bowl a couple of years ago.

So Lance may be happy now, but Brian is not.

Look out Chicago Bears.

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