GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Commissioners Bud Selig and Paul Tagliabue consulted each other extensively before deciding that pro baseball and football wouldn't be played this weekend, Green Bay Packers president Bob Harlan said.

Selig, the commissioner of baseball who also serves on the Packers' board of directors, postponed all weekend games Thursday, hours after Tagliabue announced that the NFL was postponing its slate of games this weekend because of the terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York.

"I know Bud Selig was talking frequently with Paul Tagliabue," Harlan said, adding that Selig's secretary called the Packers' offices Wednesday seeking additional phone numbers for the NFL commissioner.

Harlan said both men did the right thing in deciding no games would be played this weekend because of the national tragedy.

"I think finally you take all the surrounding fuzz and push that away, it's what should we do? And this is it. This is truly it. I don't think anyone will quarrel with this decision. When I talked to Bud a couple days ago, he said, 'You know what? I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't.'

"And maybe to a degree that's true," Harlan said. "But I think everybody's head is in the right direction and I think there will be applause for this."

Selig made the announcement in Milwaukee about four hours after the NFL said it wouldn't play this weekend. Some in baseball had advocated resuming play Friday, and two teams even started heading by bus to cities where they were scheduled for games this weekend.

"The more I thought about it, I couldn't rationalize starting before Monday," Selig said.

Harlan said he initially felt Selig would resume games on Friday.

"He was terribly upset about this, and I know he wrestled with his decision because he's an emotional person anyway," Harlan said. "And I thought at one point when I was talking to him that he might try to come back Friday. But the longer he talked, the more down he seemed and I thought, 'Well, he's going to find it awfully tough to play baseball Friday."

Harlan said he'll never forget what Selig told him the day of the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history.

"He said, 'You know, Bob, our lives are never going to be what they were Monday,"' Harlan recounted. "And I told him I totally agree.

"I think this is something that all of us are going to have to live with a long time."