HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Even if the NFL decided to play this weekend's games, New York Jets players weren't going anywhere.

Support almost unanimous

When the NFL scrapped this weekend's games on Thursday, there was barely a whimper of opposition. Such unanimity is almost unprecedented in pro sports. "I don't think we're really concerned about football," Bears quarterback Shane Matthews said. "You just sit back and think about what's going on in New York City right now, you look at the firefighters and the policemen and everybody helping out there, those are the real people that should be role models for the kids. Sure they want to look at professional athletes, but all we do, we just go out and play a game. These people are trying to save peoples' lives." With the rescue and recovery efforts still going on at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, it may have been too much to expect fans to eagerly attend NFL games. Instead, players and coaches called for a period of reflection and togetherness. Those few who favored playing this weekend's games generally changed their minds after speaking to other players, particularly members of the New York teams. Another afterthought is whether the games should be made up, something the league still is contemplating. Many in the NFL believe they simply will be canceled. As is making up the games, although there is no bye week before the Super Bowl this season. Any makeups would be squeezed into the current schedule.

Several prominent Jets, including quarterback Vinny Testaverde and wide receiver Wayne Chrebet, said Thursday they would have refused to make the trip to play the Oakland Raiders.

"I made a decision early in the morning that I was not playing this week whether the team was going to California to play a game or not," Testaverde said.

Testaverde said he spoke to Jets coach Herman Edwards and general manager Terry Bradway about his feelings and felt he was supported by both of them.

"Personally, I wouldn't have played anyway," Chrebet said. "Right when it happened Tuesday, my wife said, 'I really don't want you going this weekend,' and I said, 'It's not even a thought in my mind. That's the last thing on my mind.'

"I don't know how many guys could have gone out there to play with an attacking state of mind," Chrebet added. "Sports aren't important right now. We have to show respect for the people who are lost and the people they're still searching for."

Chrebet said being a member of the NFL fraternity doesn't matter much at this time.

"Right now we're not New York Jets or New York Giants, we're Americans. We do play for New York. But a lot of those people who were in that building were fans of ours. It hits us a little harder."

Martin and center Kevin Mawae, the team's union representative, took the same stance as Testaverde and Chrebet. Mawae said when he spoke on a conference call Wednesday night with Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, and other player reps, he informed Upshaw that "regardless of what the decision was, there's a very good chance the Jets would not play."

He said Giants players Jason Sehorn and Michael Strahan were in agreement.

"Talking with Kevin Mawae, they were not going to get on that plane and play that game," said Ken Dilger, the Colts' player representative. "I think the Jets and probably the Giants would have boycotted and forfeited the games."

A number of Jets, including Testaverde and Chrebet, grew up in the new York suburbs, with the World Trade Center visible from their towns. They said this terrorist crisis is more difficult on the Jets because it's so close to home.

"Other teams don't have to face what we have to face," Martin said. "We went through our little war. We've got to wake up every morning here.

"They don't even play music on the radio. The only thing that's on TV is this. They're harboring bodies to that stadium we play at. How do you expect our minds to be ready to play a game?"

Site of 'Skins game was less than 10 miles from Pentagon
Like most of his teammates, Redskins guard Dave Szott approves of the NFL's decision to suspend this weekend's games. The Redskins were scheduled to play the Arizona Cardinals at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., less than 10 miles from the Pentagon.

"I think it's a great decision. It was not an easy one, but it was admirable," Szott said. "The more we think about this, the emotion doesn't leave. In fact, it gets stronger and stronger. Think about all those families. It's literally hundreds of thousands of people that have been affected, and I can't see anybody cheering on Sunday for anything."

Practice Thursday was also canceled, although players agreed that their practice the day before had been a welcome distraction. The notion of playing a game, however, was totally different.

"You have to fully focused in order to play a football game," safety Keith Lyle said. "That just wasn't the case. It's all anybody's talking about right now.

"We're in the nation's capital. This is a very inviting area to all types of harm and danger. I'm not thrilled about playing in the stadium, 80,000 people, there's a lot of people that can get hurt.

"Why would we play? Football's a game. There's so many more important things. This is something that's unprecedented in the history of the United States. Why do we want to rush back and get back to our normal lives? I don't. It's one of those times when you have to sit back and figure things out."

Owner Dan Snyder established a relief fund for the families of the victims of the attack on the Pentagon. His ownership group launched it with a donation of $250,000.

"It's an unspeakable tragedy that's happened," said Snyder, who has friends and business associates among the missing from the attack in New York. "It's shaken all of us."

Cloud of smoke a constant reminder for Giants
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Standing on the New York Giants practice field Thursday, it was hard to look toward the east.

Morten Andersen tried not to do it while kicking field goals. Offensive tackle Lomas Brown seemed to shake his head every time he did.

Even Wellington Mara, the 85-year-old co-owner of the Giants, had trouble scanning the New York City skyline.

On a clear and perfect day, the cloud of smoke that obscured part of the skyline was a constant reminder of Tuesday's terrorist attack that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center and left thousands missing and presumed dead.

That's why the Giants and Mara applauded commissioner Paul Tagliabue's decision Thursday to call off all 15 NFL games this weekend out of respect for those who died.

"I don't know if I would have played," defensive end Michael Strahan said. "At this point money is not important. Keep the money -- this is life. This is respect for everybody over there.

"I don't think anybody in New York cares about football now, including us as players. It's not really important. The right decision was made."

On Friday, the Giants' light practice Friday was cut short when an alarm in the team's practice bubble went off twice. Coach Jim Fassel said the cause was a short in the air duct, but it was still unsettling coming this week.

"I think we're a little on edge," Fassel said. "I think the whole country is. If they're not, they're not aware of what's happening."

Cards would have stayed five blocks from Pentagon
TEMPE, Ariz. -- If the Arizona Cardinals had played the Redskins in Washington on Sunday, the team would have stayed in a hotel just five blocks from the Pentagon.

The Cardinals were prepared to go, but they obviously were relieved that the entire NFL schedule had been called off for this weekend.

"I think it was the right decision," quarterback Jake Plummer said after the team's Thursday practice. "The feeling from our team was that we did not feel it was right to play the games, and around the league, I think the same sentiment was there.

"In the long run, the NFL will be looked upon from this in a very good light."

Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill remained stranded in New York City, where he was attending an NFL retirement committee meeting at the time of Tuesday's attack.

He issued a statement saying, "We want to honor those who perished with the sense of dignity they deserve."

Coach Dave McGinnis said the Cardinals would not practice again until Monday. Arizona, the only NFL team yet to play a game, will open its season at home Sept. 23 against the Denver Broncos in the nationally televised ESPN Sunday night game.

"I applaud the decision," McGinnis said. "We've been in an emotional, spiritual and mental limbo for several days here. This gives everybody a chance to pause and reflect on something that has made an imprint on all of us."

Saints wanted to play, but also wanted to pay respect to victims
NEW ORLEANS -- They wanted to play, wanted the normalcy of it, the regular Sunday feeling of game day. But in the end, the New Orleans Saints players felt showing respect for the victims of this week's terrorists attack was more important.

"That was the most important thing because this goes way above football," said Saints center Jerry Fontenot. "It goes above the economic issues. It's not about money. It's about helping this nation heal. We're people before we're football players and that's what we want to show."

The cancellation will leave the Saints (1-0), who played only one preseason game at home, with no home game until Oct. 7 when they host the Minnesota Vikings.

Worse yet, said general manager Randy Mueller, it gives the team a three-week gap without a game since next week is a bye week for the Saints.

"That's hard when you take three weeks off and again that shouldn't be part of the equation," Mueller said. "I don't want to even go there, but in the middle of next week it will be hard for our guys knowing they don't play next week either."

Coach Jim Haslett said he was unsure how he would handle practice over the period.

Denver players support NFL's decision
DENVER -- Over the past 20 years, Lennie Friedman has made countless hikes to the peak of Bald Rock, a small mountain overlooking a youth camp run by his parents in West Milford, N.J.

Once at the top, visitors are rewarded with a breathtaking view of Manhattan and its incomparable skyline. It is a vista that will never be the same.

"Anytime a friend comes to town, I always take them up to the mountain because it's a beautiful place," Friedman said Thursday. "It's certainly going to be a sobering effect to go up there because it's a landscape that I've seen for 20 years for my life and now it's going to be changed.

"Every time you go up there and look, you're going to remember what happened."

The current perspective from Bald Rock offers a smoggy view of devastation after terrorists hijacked two airplanes Tuesday and crashed them into the World Trade Center, causing its twin towers to collapse.

The Pentagon in Washington was hit in a third attack, and the NFL on Thursday canceled the 15 games scheduled for Sunday and Monday out of respect for the victims and their families.

Friedman and his Denver Broncos teammates supported Commissioner Paul Tagliabue's decision, saying it would be inappropriate to play football when so many people remain buried in the rubble of what used to be two 110-story buildings in lower Manhattan.

"I don't think the NFL could have made any other decision but that," Broncos defensive tackle Trevor Pryce said. "If they would have, we would have looked like monsters, and we don't want that. Our reputation is already bad enough."

Pryce said he has relatives who work in or near the twin towers, and the family still has not heard from one of his aunts and a cousin.

"At first you feel anger. You're very, very angry about it and you want retaliation right now," Pryce said. "But then you start seeing the carnage and that stuff takes a back seat in your mind. ... Reality is going to set in. When they request 11,000 body bags, it kind of lets you know right there it doesn't look too good at all."

Vikes understand country's grief
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings returned to practice Thursday in the heartland, far away from the terrorist attacks on the East Coast two days earlier.

There were a few close calls, but no one on the team knew any of the victims.

Still, the Vikings know tragedy well.

Just as America grieves now, the team still mourns the loss of Korey Stringer -- who died of heatstroke six weeks ago in training camp.

"It's tough, because I still think the Korey issue is hanging over our team's head," said wide receiver Cris Carter. "We have been through an awful lot. There are certain people that we understand now -- that have people that are very close to them, people they work with ... now they are passing away, or they can't find them....that's how we felt."

The Vikings practiced without pads on Thursday, with their Monday night game against the Baltimore Ravens postponed, or possibly canceled. They planned workouts for Friday and Saturday and a day off on Sunday before resuming preparation next week for their Sept. 23 game against the Chicago Bears.

Steelers to attend memorial service
PITTSBURGH -- To show their sympathy for the victims of Tuesday's terrorist attacks, the Pittsburgh Steelers will attend Friday night's memorial service for the 45 people killed in the crash of United Flight 93.

The Steelers will travel by bus to Somerset, Pa., for the service.

The plane, one of four hijacked Tuesday during the terrorist attacks, crashed near Shanksville, Pa., about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, with no survivors.

"It's the right thing to do," running back Jerome Bettis said. "We need to come together in this time. So many times people assume that because we're in sports, we don't have a heart, and this is a way to show how we feel."

If Sunday night's game with Cleveland had been played, the Steelers planned to pass out American flags to every fan and hold a ceremony honoring the attack victims.

Cowher wonders if such a patriotic display during a nationally televised game could have helped soothe a nation's damaged psyche.

"Do I think it would have been special to have 65,000 holding the flag, on the field, singing the national anthem? Yeah, it would have been special, but if some people would have taken offense to that, then it wasn't the right thing to do," Cowher said.

Chargers support league's decision
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Chargers weren't going to play this weekend, anyway. They all understood why a lot of their colleagues around the NFL didn't want to.

The Chargers, who were scheduled to have their bye this Sunday, agreed with commissioner Paul Tagliabue's decision on Thursday not to play games this weekend because of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

"It was a class decision by Paul Tagliabue," linebacker Junior Seau said.

Defensive end Marcellus Wiley participated in a conference call of each team's union representative on Wednesday night. He said the players voted overwhelmingly to ask the NFL to call off the weekend games.

"It is in sympathy for the true victims and within our own NFL family," Wiley said. "For some teams, this is occurring in their backyards. We can't really empathize with them to a large degree. We were watching TV and they were walking outside and still hearing sirens, still smelling smoke. It was too emotional to go out there and play the most emotional team game there is."

Holmgren wanted to play, but he understands league's stance
KIRKLAND, Wash. -- Mike Holmgren wanted to play Sunday. So did Chad Brown, one of the player representatives for the Seattle Seahawks.

Still, they understood why the decision was made by the NFL Thursday to scrub Sunday's games in the aftermath of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"I kind of felt it was going to go the other way," said Holmgren, Seattle's third-year coach and general manager. "But I certainly understand the sentiment on the other side."

Brown, a starting linebacker, said the consensus among Seahawks players was to go ahead and play the team's home opener Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs at Husky Stadium. He expressed that sentiment in a telephone conference telephone call Wednesday night with player representatives for other NFL teams.

But player reps for the New York Jets and Giants, and for the Washington Redskins, told Brown they did not want to play. He heard their message.

"I thought the guys I talked to wanted to play," he said. "But it was easy for me to say without the travel. I would have some hesitations, some thoughts, to step on a plane."