Harris ready to justify Bears' $40 million deal

It cost the Bears $40 million in new money to get three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tommie Harris to agree to a four-year contract extension that runs through 2012, but general manager Jerry Angelo was upbeat in announcing the deal Friday morning.

"There's a lot of give and take -- mostly give on our part and take on theirs," Angelo said with a smile. "But we were able to (remain) consistent with what we believe in, rewarding our own players. This is a very proud day for us to have Tommie in the fold."

In terms of annual earnings, Harris is the highest-paid player in Bears history, and the highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL. Harris said he won't feel pressured by the size of his paycheck. He also believes players in the league are overcompensated.

"I feel like the reason I have this contract is because I've already displayed that I can carry this role," said Harris, who is the only defensive tackle in franchise history voted to three straight Pro Bowls. "It's nothing that I have to become; I'm already there.

"I don't believe any NFL player deserves the amount of money that we get. But in the business that we're in, they give us all tags and say, 'This guy's worth this, this guy's worth that.' We play a game, a kids' game and get paid a king's ransom. I'm just fortunate to be able to be in this position, and I will make the Bears organization proud."

That said, Harris believes he has earned the right to be paid as an elite player.

"It seems like I deserve this," he said. "I feel like I've worked hard for it. I've earned it, going out there playing through different ailments of the body (knee and groin injuries), and putting it all out there on the line for this organization, and I'll continue to keep doing it. I'm ready to go out there and continue to keep being the best defensive tackle in the league."

With the money the Bears have spent this off-season on extensions, it's doubtful they have much left for middle linebacker Brian Urlacher. In addition to Harris, the Bears have extended deals for Alex Brown, Robbie Gould, Desmond Clark, Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton and Rashied Davis, plus the six-year $36 million deal that weak-side linebacker Lance Briggs received.

The Bears have offered Urlacher an $18 million package. Urlacher, who has four years left on a nine-year, $56.65 million contract, was absent from most of the off-season voluntary workouts as a ploy to get more money.

"I would love to do that," Angelo said. "If it happens, great. But we can only do so much, and we can only say what we can say. It's a two-way street."

The Bears are also interested in extending Devin Hester and have discussed terms with his agent, Eugene Parker. The difficulty is deciding whether Hester should be paid as the best return man in NFL history or as the best return man in NFL history who also could wind up being a starting wide receiver this year.

"It's a very difficult dynamic," Angelo said. "I know I've never been involved in one quite like this with a player of Devin's abilities. It's a good problem to have, and we certainly want to take care of Devin. He certainly deserves our attention. We've talked to his agent and we'll just have to wait and see."

Harris still has one year remaining on his five-year, $9.8 million rookie contract, which included a $2.1 million signing bonus. He'll get $18 million in guaranteed money with the new deal and a total of $27 million over the first three years of the extension with a $13 million base salary in 2012. He contends he felt no sense of urgency to get the extension finalized before the start of training camp, when contract matters are often put on hold until after the season.

"It wasn't a rush for me to hurry up and get this done," he said. "I (wanted) to get it done because you don't want to be a distraction to your team. I would never go out and talk about the Bears in front of the media or disrespect my team. I understand that they had one year left on the (original) deal. So this is not something that they had to do. I felt like they were generous enough to do it."