Hester shows up but doesn't practice

Devin Hester hopes to be back on the practice field by the end of the weekend, but it probably won't happen without a contract extension.

Hester ended his two-day holdout by arriving early Friday morning and attending team meetings, but he did not participate in the afternoon practice. Bears coach Lovie Smith blamed it on a tight hamstring, but as soon as the Bears' purse strings loosen up, Hester is sure to be 100 percent.

Asked if he would return to practice without a contract extension, Hester said, "I have no comment on that."

At first, Hester joked that he showed up at Olivet Nazarene University for a free meal.

"The reason why I came back is (wide receivers) coach (Darryl) Drake offered to buy me dinner," said Hester, who was actually encouraged by what he heard in phone conversations with general manager Jerry Angelo and coach Lovie Smith the previous day.

"Progress was starting to move, and it was looking good, so I came back," the Pro Bowl return specialist said. "I talked to Jerry and coach Lovie, and everything seemed like it was starting to work out in the right order, and we were starting to hear what we liked, so I'm showing up."

Hester, whose base salary is $445,000 this season, said he's hopeful that his presence at camp, if not at practice, will be the catalyst to an agreement.

"Like Jerry said, they really don't (negotiate with) players who aren't here, so we're in the process in getting it done," Hester said. "I'm hoping we get it done sometime this weekend."

The Bears are hoping that, in addition to his unparalleled return abilities, Hester establishes himself this season as a starting-caliber wide receiver, and he made great progress toward that in the off-season, but he needs to maintain the learning curve.

"I don't want to fall too far behind," he said. "I want to be with my teammates. Every day I'm at home watching and reading the papers it hurts me to not here with them. I need to be here."

Until he is able or willing to begin practicing, Hester will be listed on the non-football-injury list and will count against the 80-man roster limit. He can be activated at any time, and it can't come too soon for a Bears offense lacking in big-play ability. In addition to his 7 punt- and 4 kickoff-return touchdowns in two NFL seasons, Hester averaged 15.0 yards on 20 catches last season, when he only knew a fraction of the offense.

"You can get him the ball on reverses, and he can obviously do stuff down the field," quarterback Kyle Orton said. "But he can also take a 3-yard pass and really make a big play out of it. He adds a lot of stuff to this offense."

Offensive coordinator Ron Turner said Hester won't have any problems catching up with the rest of the offense despite missing two days.

"He had a great off-season," Turner said. "He's come a long way (because) he's committing to it full time. Last year, the returning part of it was number one, and he played some receiver (on a) very, very limited role. We talked in the off-season, and the objective was to have him become a full-time receiver."

Hester can still do that, but not if he misses a lot of time on the practice field.

"We can talk about it on the board, we can show them film, we can do all that," Turner said. "But you don't totally understand until you get out there and do it."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=223592">Measuring Hester's value as difficult as tackling him <span class="date"> [7/25/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=223593">Rough day for Orton; Grossman so-so <span class="date"> [7/25/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=223596">Forte not worried about his running style <span class="date"> [7/25/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>