After a stellar Super Bowl, Terrell Owens may sit out the 2005 season. Walter Iooss Jr./SI

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- We all know the particulars of the Philadelphia Eagles' standoff with star receiver Terrell Owens: He wants a fat, new contract and the club is adamant that he isn't going to get one just two years into a seven-year, $48 million-plus deal.

But what's the end game? Where is this nasty stalemate headed? What's T.O.'s eventual exit strategy if it comes time to report for training camp or even the regular season and he is faced with the decision on whether to get serious about this holdout stuff?

When it comes to brainstorming a way out of this mess, Eagles president Joe Banner sounds just as puzzled as your average Philly fan. At this point, creative answers seem to be in short supply.

"He must have something in mind,'' Banner said Tuesday, on the opening day of the NFL's spring owners meeting in downtown D.C. "But it's not apparent to us. Hasn't he already boxed himself in? He has to make a decision. Either he's going to come in or not. I really don't know what else he can do. I wish there was another option, but we don't see one.''

In the case of a normal NFL holdout situation, the club can feel pretty secure in the fact that once the regular season weekly paychecks start getting cut, the holdout is going to find a way to come back to work. Players in the NFL, no matter how unhappy they are with their contracts, don't often walk away from regular-season pay days.

But since when has Owens followed the norm? With Owens, the nuclear option -- sitting out the season -- is at least a remote possibility.

"Normally I'd say the player is not likely to just pass up getting paid,'' Banner said. "But in this case, you really can't say. This isn't a very predictable situation.''

Banner doesn't expect any change in the situation until at least training camp, and admits he has had zero contact with Owens or his new agent, Drew Rosenhaus, since early April 6. As dug in as Owens would appear to be on his side of the divide, the Eagles, with their history of never blinking in contract impasses, are just as firm in their resolve not to give an inch.

"I'm baffled in that there doesn't seem like there's a good plan [on Owens' side],'' Banner said. "And to have done this so publicly, it really put himself in a box. If you come in and make a private request like this, and the team responds, then you proceed without there being a problem and nobody gets backed into a corner.

"But once you go public with it, the way they did it, it creates a problem for them. We have to stick to our policies and to what we think is right and fair. Any team opening that Pandora's box in such a big visible case is really creating problems that they'll not be able to get out of.''

However this story ends, forever on trial will be Owens' sense of timing, in that he seemingly had finally found the football home he had long searched for in Philadelphia in 2004. Now, so much of the goodwill that his stellar first season as an Eagle created has been quickly dissipated.

"I don't get it,'' Banner said. "He was so happy. He's a guy who by his own description had a tough time in life finding a place that felt right, finding a peace of mind and finding a place where he felt appreciated. And he was very, very verbal in feeling that he had found that in Philadelphia. And not just publicly, but privately with us. If you sought that for so long, why not enjoy it for a bit and take the ride? I wish there was something more to all of this, but I don't know what it would be.''

Good to know that the Eagles front office can't figure out T.O. any more than the rest of us.