THE NFL PLAYOFFS : Tagliabue: Games Might Be Postponed

Sunday’s NFL conference championship games could be postponed if television networks preempt football to broadcast events in the Persian Gulf war, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Friday.

“If the networks believe that the events in the Gulf are so dramatic or so significant that they should go to an all-news format, then we would not play our games,” Tagliabue told the Washington Post.

Said Joe Browne, NFL spokesman, Friday night: “We expect to play the games on Sunday. But we’re also monitoring developments and will be until kickoff.”

The AFC championship game between the Buffalo Bills and Raiders is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) in Buffalo and be broadcast by NBC. The NFC championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in San Francisco and be broadcast by CBS.

Network spokesmen said they were planning to televise the games. Ed Markey of NBC said halftime in Buffalo would be expanded from 12 minutes to 15 in order to offer a news update.

Browne said Tagliabue consulted with federal officials in Washington and club owners before deciding on the contingency plan to cancel games. Browne said owners agreed with the policy.

Tagliabue told the Post that the White House, Defense Department and members of Congress all indicated that, to this point, playing the games, including the Super Bowl Jan. 27 in Tampa, as scheduled would be appropriate.

“I think as we said, you need not paralyze the nation when you’re in a serious conflict,” Tagliabue said. “I think that history shows that morale and energy and confidence comes with playing sporting events that people are interested in.”

Although television considerations have been involved in the NFL’s decisions, Tagliabue said commercial considerations have not.

“The sponsors and the advertising has been completely irrelevant as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “The question is news and the sense of proportion and the sense of priority.”