[bears9]

Brian Urlacher is threatening to retire again. Actually, Urlacher apparently was joking on Monday when he brought up the subject with Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports while talking of media reaction to his demand for a contract extension.

It wasn’t so funny last month when an incensed Urlacher accused the Sun-Times of writing a gossip column when it revealed Urlacher’s representatives both asked for a trade and threatened the player would retire due to injury — and thus not have to pay back any signing bonus from his $56.65 million deal — in an effort to get more money from the Bears. Urlacher has four years left on his original deal, but he feels he’s played well enough to demand more money despite a chronic back condition and a new neck injury that required surgery.

The Bears responded with a one-year extension for $18 million that would include $5 million up front and $1 million more in the four years with an extra season with a base pay of $9 million. Urlacher would have to meet basic playing time incentives for the $1 million in the four additional years by playing 85 percent of the defensive snaps, something he’s done every year of his previous eight seasons except during an injury-shortened 2004.

That offer wasn’t good enough. Urlacher instead wants a multi-year extension even though he told the Chicago Tribune he wants to play 12 seasons and then re-evaluate whether he can continue with his career. Urlacher already is under contract for that time period.

Urlacher threatens to miss Bears' mandatory mini-camp :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Bears