We watch it all transpire right before our very eyes and it’s like, truly, What the heck is going on here?! Is this real? Why is this soap opera taking place in a time when so many other things are so much more important?

Terrell Owens is there, on the TV, alongside his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. I watch it. I digest it. I can’t believe what I’m hearing and what I’m seeing and, frankly, I wonder what kind of angle they can possibly have.

If I tell you this whole thing reminds me of Michael Jackson/O.J. Simpson and any other kind of freak show of the modern era (workouts in his yard in front of the media; are you kidding me?) … hey, I’m just being honest. I know how Joe Banner and Andy Reid feel. They are hopeful that Owens will realize the situation and come to grips and report on Wednesday to the Eagles and feel like he wants to be part of the team.

I hold out that same hope.

And then I watch television. And I see Owens entertaining the media while he’s playing basketball in his poorly-manicured front yard with dozens of friends-of-the-moment and I’m thinking how completely ridiculous this whole thing is.

I have a couple of questions that only time will answer.

No. 1: What is T.O. trying to accomplish here?

I don’t know. By calling out head coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Brad Childress and quarterback Donovan McNabb, Owens is saying some pretty incriminating things. Will that help his case with the Eagles? No. Let me repeat, as the Eagles have done so many times: Owens will not be released. He will not be traded. He will not have his contract renegotiated.

What is there to prove? Do Owens and Rosenhaus understand how entrenched the Eagles are here? It ain’t happening, and the choices are simple: Either you suck it up and play as an Eagle or you don’t play.

Coming in as a militant and playing the martyr is not going to be productive. Again here is the message: If Owens wants to join the team and be a part of things with both feet in, hey, we’re here. We’ll welcome him back.

If he’s going to come in and do otherwise, that will not be accepted. There is more to being a Philadelphia Eagle than practicing hard and playing hard in a game. There is a social and ethical responsibility. There is a respect that goes along with the contract.

Does T.O. think he can bully the Eagles?

I hope not. It won’t work, if he thinks that is the case. Why would you call out McNabb? My gosh. I’ve been around quarterbacks for 20 years. McNabb is the greatest leader I’ve ever seen in a locker room. He is the greatest representative I’ve ever been around for an organization. This is just insane … calling out your quarterback? One who has accomplished what McNabb has accomplished? Makes no sense…

What happens next?

Again, I think the Eagles will, as Banner said on Thursday, exercise every option they can to hopefully make this a positive situation. But, patience takes you only so far. When Owens went on national television on Thursday and says he signed a waiver to play in the Super Bowl, implying that the team made him do so, the Eagles immediately issued a statement saying "He absolutely did not sign a waiver with the team prior to last year’s Super Bowl. He was not even asked."

With the team. Key phrase there. Is Owens trying to tell the nation that the Eagles forced him to sign a waiver? Well, hey, the Eagles are saying that is not the case at all.

That’s the only stand Owens has at the moment. Did he sign a waiver with the team? The Eagles say no. What does Owens say?

Furthermore, I take offense when he tries to discredit Reid and Childress — two of the finest men I’ve ever met in 20 years of covering the NFL. It’s absurd.

Owens is in dangerous territory. He’s coming off as a desperate man grasping at straws.

I will say this, and then I will move on to the Eagles who are on the field: Owens is fighting a battle in which he has only two choices: Play this year as a full-fledged member of the team, or don’t play football at all. Putting on this show and trying to badmouth the organization isn’t going to work. Don’t try to discredit me and my co-workers, T.O. That doesn’t fly here.

Now … About The Football Team

This week, Don Banks of Sports Illustrated explains what the Eagles’ approach to the off-season has meant and what the Eagles will do in the draft …
"The Eagles’ off-season has been led by the Darren Howard signing. I think that was a smart move. I think that’s the kind of player you want in free agency - young, already proven to some degree, productive, and yet still a lot of upside. The idea around the league on him is that he’s a guy who may have been in a situation that wasn’t perfect for him and the environment in Philadelphia might be.

RB Brian Westbrook is one of the starters returning in 2006 
"I think the addition by subtraction of having Terrell Owens’ situation finally being dealt with. I think the Eagles are well positioned within the division, actually. I expect the Giants and the Redskins, perhaps, to take a little bit of a step back. I think maybe they both overachieved in 2005.

"The fact that the Eagles didn’t panic, didn’t blow up their model, didn’t blow up their equation is a sign that, much like a team like Pittsburgh, they can endure a tough year or two and still keep things in place and at least knock on that door. I expect the Eagles to be back in playoff contention in 2006.

"I see a team with 21 of 22 starters from last year signed for this year. I look at them and don’t believe the Eagles needed to come into the off-season and re-load. That team needed to get past a year where nothing went right for them.

"In the draft, I think Andy Reid will hold true to form and address the offensive or defensive lines at the top of the day. Reid always looks to build those lines first. I think he’s a man who doesn’t deviate too much from his philosophy.

"He has reason to remain consistent. The Eagles have always had the free-agent philosophy that they are not going on a shopping spree. They try to stick to their model, and I agree with that approach."

A whole lot - and maybe nothing at all. As expected, the Eagles have made nary a whisper about the draft and their intentions, and the mock drafts don’t seem to have locked in on what the Eagles are thinking.

The buzz.

Andy Reid 
There isn’t one, yet. At 14, the Eagles are in the enviable position of having options. They can move up in the draft - as far up as they want, really, given the six draft picks in the opening four rounds they have. If you were to believe the mock drafts, the Eagles could take anyone from a running back to an offensive lineman, to a defensive lineman to a wide receiver to a linebacker. Nobody has a good feel for what the Eagles are thinking.

Inside the offices of Andy Reid and Tom Heckert, though, the plans are being made. The Eagles have no doubt prepared numerous mock drafts of their own, have considered multiple scenarios and have talked to just about every team in the league about possible trade scenarios.

Reid has always been willing to dance with multiple partners in the draft. He trades early, he trades often and he trades not at all. So, publicly, the draft buzz is saying all kinds of things, but nobody knows for sure - and that nobody includes Reid and Heckert - of what the Eagles will do until the time comes and they are on the clock.

Generally, as Reid has explained it in the past, the Eagles collect a group of names from which they will consider at a certain pick. If every player from that group is on the board, the Eagles will take the one they think fits the best.

If none of the players is on the board, the Eagles would likely trade out of that slot. If the Eagles don’t think those players will last to the pick, they’ll have to make decisions: Trade up to have a chance to potentially draft players in that group, remain where they are and hope one of the players slips to them, or move back in that round.

Surely, the Eagles are assessing their options on potential draft picks. But we don’t know the mechanisms of what is happening behind the scenes until just after noon on April 29. That’s when the action will truly begin.