In any negotiation, credibility is important.  And Bears receiver/returner Devin Hester is taking a risk that he’ll have none in his current dispute with the Chicago Bears.

Because Hester says that he’s prepared to sit out the entire season, and that makes no sense at all. 

“It’s time for me to take a stand,” Hester told the Chicago Sun-Times.  “We’re going to stand by our decision to do this, and we feel like this can go down to whenever in the season or the end of the season.  No matter what.”

If he sits out the season, he’d lose a year of service toward free agency, and he wouldn’t get credit for one of the two years left on his rookie contract.  (To get credit for a contract year, he needs to show up by Week Ten of the regular season.)

Meanwhile, at more than $15,000 per day in fines, Hester’s bill to the Bears will in 30 days or so exceed his total base salary for the entire 2008 season of $450,000.

So Hester’s stance simply isn’t realistic.  And the rhetoric could cause positions to harden, and make it more difficult to work something out in the short term. 

Thus, the reality is that Hester will be back, unless he’s really stupid.  Or unless he’s secretly won the lottery.