Despite an initial desire to proceed with at least some games, the National Football League listened to players and the pulse of a grieving country Thursday and called off all Sunday and Monday games.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Tuesday’s unprecedented national tragedy led to his unprecedented decision and revealed he never had any intention of making the New York Giants, New York Jets or Washington Redskins play because they were teams “at ground zero” of the terrorist attacks.
Tagliabue said he considered allowing the rest of the league to play.
“From the very beginning it was clear we could not have games in New York or Washington,” Tagliabue said. “It really came down to the loss of life and the ability of players to absorb what we’ve all been through. We felt it was right to take a week to reflect and to help our friends, families and people in the community who need our support.”
Contingency plans for the Giants to travel to Green Bay were made, but some Jets players said they would have refused to travel to Oakland or anywhere else for a scheduled game because of the trauma they experienced firsthand.
Players in other cities expressed solidarity with New York and Washington players as well as players around the league with ties to those areas. New England guard Joe Andruzzi has three brothers who are New York City firefighters, one of whom escaped the World Trade Center. The San Francisco 49ers called off practice Thursday and bused together to give blood.
The league will either reduce its schedule to 15 games or reduce its playoff format from 12 teams to eight and eliminate the wild-card weekend in order to reschedule Week 2. The latter option appeared more equitable from a competitive standpoint, although there would be a problem with a Bears home game against Jacksonville on that Jan. 5-6 wild-card weekend because of the scheduled renovation of Soldier Field that has the Bears playing their last two games on the road.
Tagliabue said he could announce a decision as soon as Friday. Tagliabue’s announcement caused a chain reaction of postponements and cancellations among other sports. Tagliabue said he consulted with other sports commissioners, including baseball’s Bud Selig, NASCAR’s Bill France and golf’s Tim Finchem, who already had canceled the PGA Tour for the weekend.
Tagliabue said he told Selig on Wednesday night he was considering two alternatives–a partial schedule or cancellation.
“I told him we could cancel the games involving the New York and Washington teams and, if the national day of mourning was on Friday, to consider whether we could play some of the games on Sunday,” Tagliabue said. “But I also emphasized to him that would present some difficult points of principle for us and would also need to be evaluated by players. When we finished that process, the cancellation of all the games seemed clearly to be the wise and appropriate course.”
Tagliabue said airplane and stadium security, logistics and the regrettable decision by predecessor Pete Rozelle to proceed with games two days after the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy were only “marginal” considerations. Gene Upshaw, NFL Players Association executive director, said a Wednesday night conference call with player representatives revealed a clear mood against playing, although he said it was not 31-0. Upshaw relayed the sentiments to Tagliabue in a late-night telephone conversation.
Buffalo Bills player representative Phil Hansen said testimony from Giants player representative Michael Strahan and Jets rep Kevin Mawae rallied all players against playing.
“The hair stood up on the back of my neck,” Hansen said. “Those guys told the way they felt and the way their teammates felt about security, about friends, about neighbors who hadn’t returned home yet. It was very vivid.”
Some players expressed surprised that it took the league 48 hours to make the decision. Said Minnesota Vikings receiver Cris Carter: “It was going to be difficult to get the players to play this week.”
Carter and Giants owner Wellington Mara said the players agreed to forfeit 1/16th of their salary if the season is reduced to 15 games. Tagliabue said his staff had been in contact with staff in the Bush administration, but his primary government influence was New York Gov. George Pataki.
“Gov. Pataki emphasized that we as a people were not going to be intimidated and certainly not going to begin to fear fear itself, as FDR said, and emphasized as a people we were going to go forward resolutely and more strongly than ever,” Tagliabue said. “But that did not mean we had to go to a sporting event at the first opportunity. It meant we had to tend to citizens and care for each other and then get back to sporting events after a decent interval.
“I thought that was really a powerful way of putting it.”
Tagliabue said he and Upshaw were on the phone after the World Trade Center towers were hit and before the Pentagon was hit. Since NFLPA offices are in Washington, their initial conversations involved concern over the safety of their staffs more than contingencies for playing.
Said Tagliabue: “We had employees who by the middle of the day knew their spouses were missing in action and they are still missing in action.”
The Giants play and practice in the Meadowlands, N.J., in view of the devastated Manhattan skyline. They were scheduled to host the Packers. Mara, the senior NFL owner, preferred not to play and participated in a conference call with Tagliabue and fellow owners Dan Rooney of Pittsburgh and Jerry Richardson of Carolina on Thursday morning when Tagliabue revealed his decision. Said Bills defensive lineman Hansen: “There’s two ways to look at this. You can say we’re not going to let it affect us, get right back to normalcy and play on Sunday. But normalcy isn’t going to happen. It didn’t happen today, it’s not going to happen tomorrow.”
NFL statement
Text of NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s statement on calling off this weekend’s games:
“We in the National Football League have decided that our priorities for this weekend are to pause, grieve and reflect. It is a time to tend to families and neighbors and all those wounded by these horrific acts of terrorism.
“We understand those individuals in sports who want to play this weekend. We also can empathize with those who want to take the weekend off and resume their personal lives and professional careers next week. We strongly believe that the latter course of action is the right decision for the NFL.
“On Sunday, Sept. 23, the NFL, its players and coaches will return stronger than ever and resume our playing schedule.
“A decision on whether to re-schedule this weekend’s games or play a 15-game regular season schedule is under consideration and will be announced as soon as possible.”
