By declining to sign a contract with the Carolina Panthers by Wednesday's 4 p.m. deadline, Julius Peppers becomes the world's highest paid temp.

Bound to the Panthers for one season, he'll make $16.683 million (before bonuses), more than $1 million a game.

This is the rare deal that doesn't satisfy either party.

Peppers doesn't want to be a Panther. If he did, he would have signed a contract last season or last month or Wednesday.

The Panthers, in turn, don't want Peppers to be a temp. They cling to the idea that Julius will change his mind and sign a long-term contract and they can be friends again.

It's not going to happen. The Peppers-Panthers saga will not end well.

The Panthers have always considered Julius theirs. They never even considered another player with the No. 2 pick in the 2002 draft. They got to know Julius (to the extent that other human beings can) and got to know Julius' mom.

He was home grown, an N.C. lifer. He had become a legend in Bailey in the eastern part of the state and a football star at North Carolina. He even played basketball for the Tar Heels, knocking around Mike Krzyzewski's big men back when Krzyzewski had big men.

The future was laid out. Peppers was going to spend his life in N.C. and his career with the Panthers. He was going to get a bronze statue outside Bank of America Stadium and a likeness in Canton, Ohio.

The owner of the Panthers, Jerry Richardson, loved Peppers. Everybody in the organization did. The Panthers were less an employer than a benefactor.

When Peppers played miserably in 2007, recording a mere 2 1/2 sacks, the Panthers proved their loyalty by offering to make him the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. Julius didn't turn down the contract. He didn't acknowledge it.

He had fulfilled all of his contractual obligations and, when the '08 season ended, he was ready to leave. The Panthers stopped him by applying the franchise tag. Julius finally signed the tender last month.

Carolina tried to get him to sign a real contract like his teammates have, a contract that would bind him to the team for more than a season and release money to spend on other players.

But Julius didn't sign. He's not going to.

So we will repeat '08. And if Peppers again refuses to commit, the Panthers can again apply the franchise tag.

Apply always reminds me of wrestling; wrestlers apply holds. The franchise tag, however, is more binding. No man has escaped. If the Panthers tag Peppers again in '10, it will cost them about $20 million.

Despite his temp status, I think Julius will give the Panthers what he always gives them. There will be times when he's manhandled by a bloated lineman who didn't start for his college team. There also will be times when he makes a virtuoso play that no other NFL defensive lineman can.

Julius will deliver double-figures sacks, force as many fumbles as any end in the league and often make his employers and fans forget that he desperately wants to be on a different field playing for a different team.

By Tom Sorensen