Bears’ Forte might decide to stand on principle

Monday is some sort of big day in Matt Forte’s contract saga.

The rules are complicated but apparently either the Bears sign their prize running back to a multiyear contract or he is relegated to playing under a franchise tag.

The former should guarantee him somewhere between $15 million and $20 million; the latter would pay him $7.7 million this season alone.

Forte might not accept the lower figure and hold out instead. Few if any of us can understand what the problem would be to work what amounts to six months for nearly $8 million. My goodness, that’s more than twice or three or four times what even well-paid Americans will make during a lifetime.

In a way, though, maybe all working stiffs can relate to Forte’s position.

Everyone in the workforce places a value on his or her services. Of course, most of us must grudgingly take less if it comes to that because we don’t have the leverage Forte believes, correctly or not, that he has.

We don’t have the flexibility of youth that Forte has. We don’t have the faith in ourselves. We don’t have a 21st-century education from a prestigious university like Tulane.

It takes considerable self-esteem to reject financial security to stand on principle.

I don’t know whether that’s what Forte is considering doing or what in the end he actually will do when it’s time for him or the Bears to blink.

But while it’s always about the money even when someone in sports says it isn’t … well, wouldn’t it be refreshing if this time it’s about money and principle?

Nagging at Forte is that he is a better running back than some other running backs with bigger contracts.

This principle of “better equals more” isn’t new among athletes. I remember talking with former slugger Frank Thomas just before he walked out briefly on the White Sox. It was the first day of spring training and he was fuming.

So, big fella, what’s going on? You already have enough money to sustain a couple of generations of Thomases, don’t you? So why let a couple, few or even several more million dollars get in the way of baseball?

The answer essentially was that money is the currency of respect.

Thomas had just come from a home run-hitting contest that featured some of the game’s premier power hitters.

My theory is that if talk of money didn’t come up around the batting cage, thoughts of it probably did.

You know, like “that guy makes this much and this guy makes that much and, sheesh, I’m better than them.”

That can be embarrassing in an industry where salary defines an employee’s worth as much as statistics do.

So maybe Forte perceives the same slight that I perceived that Thomas perceived. Remember, Forte was in the Pro Bowl in January with other top running backs, and players talk.

Money aside, hardly anybody likes to be dictated to by bosses. We all know more than they do about money, about our job, about life.

That’s no different for professional athletes, especially young ones who don’t know yet what they don’t know.

Hopefully before Monday’s deadline Forte and the Bears will agree on a new contract that satisfies both sides.

But if not, don’t blame Matt Forte for standing on principle that most of us wish we had the leverage, confidence and audacity to stand on.

mimrem@dailyherald.com