Bears` middle linebacker Mike Singletary said Monday night he is prepared to sit out the season if his five-year contract is not renegotiated.
Singletary was asked by Chuck Swirsky on WGN Sports Central if he would miss the start of training camp next month.
”To be honest, I`m prepared to miss this year if it comes to that,”
Singletary told Swirsky. ”I know it will be tough, but I feel this is something I have to do.”
Singletary signed a six-year contract before the 1984 season that will pay him an average of $276,000 a year. When 1984 No. 1 draft choice Wilber Marshall signed for four years at more than $500,000 a year, Singletary believed his deal had become obsolete.
Singletary, who missed the team`s minicamp in May when he announced his holdout, told WGN how he could justify a renegotiation.
”The Bears are not obligated to pay me,” he said. ”They can cut me or trade me. Why should it be binding on my end if it`s not binding on their end?”
Singletary said he is not among the top 15 paid linebackers in the National Football League. He capped the 1984 season, his fourth as a pro, by being selected the National Football Conference Defensive Player of the Year by one wire service. He was a first-team Pro Bowl selection in 1983.
The Bears will conduct training camp from July 21 to Aug. 16 at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
