HONOLULU ? For the NFL’s best players, a trip to the Pro Bowl is an honor, a working vacation and a most-expenses-paid reward for a year of hard knocks. For a week, they’re VIPs in an island paradise, reveling in exceptional treatment and privileges for their whole families.

And the all-stars who travel to Hawaii with unsettled contract situations become stars among the stars, who sometimes use this quality time to encourage reunions back on the mainland. After all, it certainly worked last season, when Donovan McNabb sold Terrell Owens on his move to Philadelphia by schmoozing the San Francisco receiver all week.

A few of the Eagles were at it again in the week leading up to today’s game. One by one, they sidled up to Carolina’s Muhsin Muhammad and encouraged him to move to greener pastures — Eagles green, that is. They even goaded Muhammad to pose in a team picture with Philadelphia’s 10 Pro Bowlers.

“It’s definitely a time to see your old friends and make new ones,” said Muhammad, who could be released if he can’t rework his contract with the Panthers before he’s due to receive a $10 million roster bonus next season.

Muhammad still says he wants to stay in Carolina, and he’s focused on his second trip to the Pro Bowl, which will be played before an enthusiastic sellout crowd at Aloha Stadium for the 26th straight year.

These recruitment efforts go on quietly, because everything about Pro Bowl week is designed to avoid controversy or stress. The players hole up on Oahu’s west side in a luxury resort entirely rented by the NFL, and the week is filled with family-oriented parties and events for the players and coaches.

Even the halftime show is almost guaranteed to go off without a wardrobe malfunction when 74-year-old Hawaiian singing legend Don Ho performs.