LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Matt Forte's offseason began in somewhat controversial fashion when the tailback opted to train in South Florida instead of attending the start of the Chicago Bears' offseason program.

In light of Forte's soon-to-be expiring contract; Forte's decision to miss Phase 1 of the voluntary program and the voluntary minicamp seemed to set the stage for a training camp holdout.

Why else would the 29-year old tailback choose to skip workouts with a new coaching staff in the building?

Well, Forte eventually put the speculation to rest and rejoined his teammates at Halas Hall in the middle portion of the offseason program.

Ever since returning to Halas Hall a couple of weeks ago, Forte has said all the right things in regards to the stalled contract talks with the Bears.

This was not always the case.

Remember, Forte's quest for a new deal in the summer of 2011 led to some bad blood between the running back and ex-general manager Jerry Angelo. Forte later signed a new four-year deal in July, 2012 after Angelo had been replaced by Phil Emery.

"You've got to be patient in these types of things and nobody's going to force anybody's hand on either side so you just have to be patient that's about the only thing I learned from the past," Forte said Wednesday. "The situation a couple years ago was being vastly underpaid; that's not the situation now, it's more of this year is more of just like lowering the cap number and trying to continue my legacy as a Bear and trying to retire that way. It happens to be whatever shakes out, whatever they think."

Forte is not scheduled to be underpaid in 2015.

At 29-years old, Forte can earn a maximum of $8.2 million dollars in the final year of his deal -- a fair sum of money for a running back of that age. Forte has zero incentive to not take the Bears' money, which is why he reiterated on Wednesday that he will not boycott training camp.

"As you can see I'm out here at OTAs and I don't have any injuries, I'm not nursing anything like that," Forte said. "So I'm pretty much healthy. So I feel like I can continue to play as long as I want to."

It really is unfortunate that Forte's age is such a talking point. He keeps himself in tremendous shape and showed no visible signs of decline last year when he led the Bears in receptions (102) and rushing yards (1,038). But the NFL is often unkind financially to older running backs.

"Nobody wants to play on a one-year deal, especially the uncertainty of how football is with how it goes," Forte said. "You just figure like a guy who's been there since Day 1, continues to put in hard work and has produced, you figure that that guy should be rewarded. But in this business that doesn't always happen."

After seven years in the league, Forte's business savvy is making him look like a very smart man this offseason.