Keenan McCardell earned a Pro Bowl berth in 2003 after catching 84 passes for 1,174 yards and eight touchdowns. Scott Halleran/Getty Images

He is the NFL's last holdout and, as fate would have it, Keenan McCardell's injury-ravaged, offensively challenged team misses him more than even he could have imagined. But if you're a Tampa Bay Bucs fan who's holding out hope that the smooth, veteran wideout will soon be providing some much-needed firepower -- well, you might want to stop holding your breath.

Things have gotten ugly between McCardell, the team's leading receiver the past two seasons, and Bucs management, which in this case means coach Jon Gruden and his hand-picked general manager, Bruce Allen. In a telephone interview on Wednesday, McCardell charged that Gruden has "hatred in [his] heart" and that he and Allen are letting enmity and ego get in the way of what's best for the team.

"Jon keeps speaking about how his offense needs some spark," McCardell said. "I think I would be a spark to that offense; all you have to do is look at my numbers. But they don't want me to be there. It's all about ego now, for Bruce and Jon." McCardell also charged that Gruden is deriving great pleasure from the 34-year-old receiver's frustration. "He's loving it," McCardell said. "He's thinking that I'm suffering, and he's loving it. Trust me, I am not suffering in any way. I'm working out and staying in great shape and spending quality time with my family. But he thinks I'm suffering, and he's enjoying it. That's the kind of person he is."

While Gruden specifically declined to comment -- "My focus right now is on preparing for the Oakland Raiders," Gruden said -- on this latest salvo from a disgruntled receiver (two weeks ago, Cowboys wideout Keyshawn Johnson, who feuded with Gruden last year before being suspended and eventually released, took some severe verbal shots at his ex-coach in an interview with SI's Jeff Chadiha), Allen, in a phone interview on Thursday, bristled at McCardell's comments.

"I think it's pretty clear that he's trapped in a bad business decision," Allen said of the 13th-year veteran, who has two years remaining on the four-year, $10-million deal he signed with Tampa in 2002. "The things he's saying are absurd. There are 2,100 players signed to NFL contracts, and I'm sure 2,080 of them would like to make more money. Yet he's the only one not playing because of it. He's obviously frustrated in the decision he's made. It's got to be tough on him."

It's pretty clear who the big loser is in this situation: Everyone. Allen, the former Raiders general manager, returns to Oakland for Sunday's nationally televised extravaganza mired in a feud that seems to be worsening. Gruden, so revered after winning a Super Bowl in his first season with the Bucs, has since won a power struggle with a popular general manager (Rich McKay, now in a similar post with the Falcons) while losing 11 of 18 games and credibility with several former players. McCardell, among other things, has lost plenty of money -- $28,500 in daily fines, and counting (by $5,000 a day), as of Friday; $312,500 in game checks, and counting (by $156,250 per game) as of last Sunday. (The team is also fighting to retrieve half of the $2 million signing bonus it paid McCardell in 2002.) The Bucs are 0-2, have yet to score an offensive touchdown and are without injured veteran receiver Joey Galloway for at least several more games.

In the meantime, McCardell sits stewing in his Houston-area home, hoping that the Bucs will trade him or grant him his release. Gruden and Allen appear to be resolute in their conviction that McCardell must report and fulfill his contractual obligation or write off the season entirely. It's a contentious and somewhat complicated staredown, and taking sides isn't easy.

I happen to know all of the principals and have especially good relationships with McCardell and Gruden, each of whom I've found to be forthright and sincere in our past dealings. I could tell you about the grit and determination McCardell showed in fighting his way up from practice-squad anonymity to land in Jacksonville, where he teamed with Jimmy Smith to form the league's most dangerous receiving tandem for six productive seasons before getting a ring in Tampa. I could remind you that Gruden almost single-handedly transformed a dysfunctional, hyper-paranoid culture in Oakland to turn the Raiders into an AFC power -- then, after jumping to the Bucs, he took Tampa over the hump and thoroughly schooled successor Bill Callahan in Tampa's Super Bowl XXXVII blowout.

By no means do I believe that Gruden has suddenly has become anything less than a great coach. However, I do think that, as with the suspension of Johnson last year, this is one of the first tests of Gruden's status as the franchise's unquestioned power-broker, and that makes him less likely to yield to what Allen characterized as "excessive" contract demands by McCardell. And I'm utterly convinced of this: What began as a business dispute has devolved into a clash of wills that is becoming increasingly personal.

"It ain't a coincidence that the players who've been in Tampa for years -- Key, [John] Lynch, [Warren] Sapp -- leave unhappy," McCardell said. "Sometimes, where there's smoke, there's fire. They're unhappy for a reason. At some point you just want to play football, away from Tampa. You want to get out. That's where I'm at now."

McCardell, through agent Gary Uberstine, expressed his dissatisfaction with his contract situation shortly after the end of a disappointing 2003 season in which the defending champion Bucs slipped to 7-9. Scheduled to make a base salary of $2.5 million in 2004, McCardell sought a renegotiated package that would boost his annual compensation to the $4.4 million range. He believed his numbers -- 84 catches for 1,174 yards and eight touchdowns in 2003, which earned him a Pro Bowl berth -- warranted a raise that would place his salary in the range of those earned by other No. 1 receivers around the league.

The Bucs had gotten McCardell on the cheap in 2002 because the Jaguars, unhappy with McCardell's cap number, waited until after June 1 to cut him for accounting purposes. Having experienced the wrong end of the league's lopsided loyalty equation, McCardell felt he had done enough in two years with the Bucs to redress the wrong. Gruden, he said, called him in Hawaii to congratulate him on the Pro Bowl appearance, at which point McCardell brought up his desire for a new deal. Said McCardell: "He told me, 'Don't worry about that; it'll get taken care of.' Then the offseason went on, and nothing. Finally, he said, 'I've washed my hands of it. I'm giving it to Bruce.' What's that?

"He wants to wash his hands of it, and that's not cool. I mean, who's running the show? Jon says it's not him, but he got McKay out of there and brought in Bruce to take the job. It's like he and Bruce are playing good cop/bad cop. Nobody wants to take responsibility. Well, who's going to take responsibility now that they're 0-2?"

Allen insisted that he alone should be the object of McCardell's disaffection. "Keenan's situation is certainly not Jon Gruden-related," Allen said. "Warren Sapp's situation was certainly not Jon Gruden-related. In fact, Jon was Warren's best agent. In every way, he was supportive of trying to figure out some way to keep him. "Allen also discounted the notion that he and Gruden feel especially compelled to prevail in their first high-profile challenge as Tampa's top front-office figures: "I don't see it any differently if we were here one year or eight years. The unjust part of pro football, going back decades and decades and decades, was when there supposedly was no free agency. Keenan's been a free agent eight times."

Granted, most of those "free agent" opportunities came when McCardell was an unproven player struggling to make it in the league -- but give the son of George Allen points for his rhetorical skills. His overarching point: Under this system, McCardell has little choice but to play out the contract he signed and hope that, at 36, he'll be able to cash in as a free agent after 2005. "We've told him to come back and play," Allen said. "We've left the light on and the door open."

The Bucs, of course, could easily cut their losses by trading McCardell. A league source says the Baltimore Ravens inquired about dealing for McCardell on draft day and the Chicago Bears offered a fourth-round pick for him three weeks ago. The Kansas City Chiefs, who are in desperate need of a front-line receiver, are also said to be interested. McCardell wouldn't discuss specific teams, but he insisted, "We know two teams have offered something for me --supposedly a fourth-round pick. But they (Gruden and Allen) won't do it. It's out of spite."

Retorted Allen: "That's not true, by the way. Nobody has contacted us about trading for him. I do find it interesting that he thinks his value is only a fourth-round pick. Most fourth-rounders don't make as much as he does."

Steve Caric, a spokesperson for Uberstine's Premier Sports Management, insisted, "There have definitely been offers. We know that (Allen) turned down a draft-day trade, and that was after we made it 100 percent clear to him before the draft that Keenan wouldn't report if he didn't have a new deal."

The two sides also disagree about the current state of negotiations: Allen said he and Uberstine discussed McCardell's situation as recently last Friday; Caric, who was privy to the conversation, claimed that Allen merely asked "how Keenan was doing" and that there have been no substantive negotiations "since before Father's Day."

Beyond the factual disputes, there are far more serious issues. The longer McCardell stays away, the deeper his dislike for Gruden becomes. "When you spite somebody, you've got hatred in your heart," McCardell said of his coach. "The dude is ego-driven. When somebody does something out of spite, it's because of ego and hatred in your heart. It goes deeper than just me. He has it in his heart all the way around. If I caused him to do this out of spite, I know there's other things he's probably done."

McCardell said he feels for his teammates, especially quarterback Brad Johnson, who was benched in the second quarter of the team's 10-6 defeat to the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday. "I watched the end of that game, and it hurt me that they didn't have enough guys to make the plays to help them win," McCardell said. "They held Seattle to 10 points and less than 200 yards, and you know all our offense had to do was make one play to win it. You look at the quarterback situation, and how quickly people forget that the guy led this team to a championship. He's made big play after big play for this team, and you yank him in the second quarter of the second game? Then again, he doesn't have a lot of weapons right now. Even Jon said it himself: He needs weapons. Well, one weapon he had last year was me, and he could have me back tomorrow if he wanted."

As hard as it is to imagine McCardell and Gruden coexisting, the receiver's eventual return remains the most likely outcome. McCardell must report before the 10th game of the season to receive credit for a year accrued under the league's collective bargaining agreement, and it's likely he'll wait until just before the deadline to swallow his pride and rejoin the team.

"Oh, he'll report at some point," Allen predicted. "Unless he doesn't want to play football. It's up to him, and it has been up to him. This is not a new story."

Said McCardell: "I'm probably the guy that's dealing with the new GM in town, but it still doesn't make sense. If you're any kind of GM, and your team is struggling, you look and see what I've done over the last few years and you at least talk to me. I could just say, 'Forget it, man.' I love to play football, and I'm a professional, but first and foremost I'm a man, and I need to be treated fairly.

"I'll come back when I'm good and ready. I'm not saying I'm going to sit out the whole season; I'm not saying I'm not going to sit out the whole season. The only thing I like about Bruce is that he says, 'I don't deal in absolutes.' That's the way I feel; I won't close the door on anything. But for the time being, I don't think I'll be back there. There's too much ego involved. At some point, you just want to play football -- away from Tampa. You just want to get out."

Judging by his latest words, McCardell is trying very hard to force the Bucs to grant his wish.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Silver sounds off weekly on SI.com.