Majority in League Like Idea to Wait

NFL players were strongly in favor of the league’s decision Thursday to call off games this weekend because of terrorist attacks.

“This is the worst disaster in the history of this country,” Atlanta Falcon quarterback Chris Chandler said. “To go ahead and go with it is just a little offensive. You have to [move on], but when they’re pulling thousands and thousands of bodies out of the collapsed World Trade Center, and the Giants are going to be playing a game, I guess, a mile or two away from there, it’s just not right.”

The NFL made its decision Thursday after Commissioner Paul Tagliabue held a conference call with selected team owners and President Bush declared Friday a national day of mourning. The league also was in touch with White House staff, although not directly with the president.

“It really came down to the loss of life and the ability of players to absorb what we’ve all been through,” Tagliabue said. “We felt it was right to take a week to reflect and to help our friends, families and people in the community who need help.”

The league, which had never canceled games in a non-strike season, is considering two solutions to make its new schedule workable:

* Every team except San Diego would play a 15-game schedule. The Chargers, scheduled to be off this week, will play 16 games, and their winning percentage would be the determining factor in the playoff race.

* Wild-card games would be scrubbed, and this week’s games would be played Jan. 6. That means each conference would send one wild-card team to the playoffs, instead of three. Changing the date of the Super Bowl is not an option, Tagliabue said.

Tagliabue said the “teams at Ground Zero”--the New York Giants and Jets, and Washington Redskins--would not have played this week, even if other teams had. But Bob Harlan, president of the Green Bay Packers, said he talked to the league office Tuesday, shortly after the terrorist attacks, and discussed the possibility of his team playing host to the Giants on Sunday, instead of playing at the Meadowlands.

“We truly spent the greatest part of our week planning how we would bring a game in here,” he said. He had planned a “subdued” pregame ceremony and intended to bring in a chorus to sing “God Bless America.”

For the most part, players were in favor of canceling the games.

“At first I thought we would play, so I was trying to condition myself,” Tampa Bay safety John Lynch said. “But then when I went home and saw the rescue efforts ... to realize we’d be out there playing while they were searching for people, that changed my perspective.”

The tragedy has hit home for many in the NFL. Tagliabue said some people who work in the league office have spouses missing in the rubble. Redskin guard Dave Szott has a brother who is blind and worked in the Twin Towers complex. Kevin Szott worked as an insurance broker in a building that has collapsed. While the disaster unfolded, Dave Szott was watching from his lawn in nearby Morristown, N.J.

“I was as panicked as I’ve ever been in my life, and I’m an even-keel guy,” said Dave, whose brother got out safely. Kevin was on the phone when debris hit his office window. A co-worker helped him to safety.

“They were running in the street,” Dave said. “His friend said, ‘I know you can’t see this, but people are jumping out of the building on fire right now.’ The carnage was unreal.”

As for the league opting not to play this weekend’s games, he said: “I think it was a great decision. It’s not an easy one, but it was admirable. The more we think about this, the emotion doesn’t leave. In fact, it gets stronger and stronger.”

Dallas Cowboy running back Emmitt Smith said he was torn about the decision to cancel games.

“I think maybe if the games were played, people might decide to say, ‘Fine,’ instead of being pounded all day with all this agony and sadness,” he said. “It might be a good outlet. At the same time, I feel for the victims and their families in New York and Washington. My heart goes both ways.”

Bruce Allen, an Oakland Raider executive whose older brother, George, is a U.S. Senator from Virginia, said he and his players are willing to do anything President Bush wants.

“If the President of the United States wanted us to play, we should play,” Allen said. “If he didn’t want us to play, we should not play. If the President wanted the Raiders to do the baggage handling this weekend at the Oakland Airport, that’s what we would have done.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.