National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue decided Thursday to call off the 15 scheduled games this weekend in wake of the terrorist attacks on Tuesday.

During a conference call with the league's owners, the decision was unanimous that the games should not be played, said one team source.

There was strong sentiment among the owners that with the players' strongly recommending the games not be played, they should also follow suit.

League vice president Joe Browne did not say whether the games were canceled or postponed. The league will decide in the next two or three days what to do with the adjusted schedule, and the source said the league is leaning toward canceling Sunday's 15 Week 2 games.

There is a chance the NFL could decide to play the canceled games the weekend following the scheduled close of the regular season, which would eliminate two wild card teams and shorten the playoffs, but the team source said that's not something that the ownership is strongly considering.

"I think it's just going to be a 15-game season," the source said.

The league will have to make an adjustment for the San Diego Chargers, which was scheduled to have the bye week.

The Chargers now have a 16-game schedule, which means the AFC West and a playoff berth in the AFC could be decided by percentage points instead of won-loss record.

The league will also use some form of revenue-sharing to help offset the loss of revenue for the teams that lost home games this weekend, the team source said.

The postponement was the first for non-strike reasons by the NFL, which played two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. Commissioner Pete Rozelle said it was the worst decision he made in 29 years in office.

Opinion among players and coaches had been divided. But many players wanted the games called off.

"If we do play Sunday, it looks like: 'Those damn football players. All they care about is their money,'" Phil Hansen of Buffalo said Wednesday. "But we don't have a choice in the matter. The NFL's going to decide. You know what? I'll forgo my weekly paycheck. This is serious."

Others thought the NFL should set an example for terrorists.

"From a personal standpoint -- not as a coach but as an American -- we want to play," Baltimore coach Brian Billick said. "I don't want cowards to dictate what we do in this country. That's where my anguish is right now."

Many players expressed a reluctance to fly after four planes were hijacked.

Others knew victims of the attacks on the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center.

"I got a couple tough calls this morning," Tennessee quarterback Neil O'Donnell said Wednesday. "We'll wait and see. The people who I knew up top didn't have a chance, from what I'm told."

The first indication of the decision came from Giants Stadium, which is being used as a staging area for rescue and recovery vehicles from the attacks that leveled the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Smoke from the disaster can be seen from the stadium, about 10 miles away.

About 11:20 a.m. ET, John Mara, the team's executive vice president, came running from his office in the stadium to the practice field, where he talked for about five minutes with coach Jim Fassel.

A few minutes later, Pat Hanlon, vice president of communications for the New York Giants, told reporters that Sunday's games were off.

Fassel then called his team into a huddle and told them that Sunday's home opener with Green Bay was off. The players went to the sidelines, took off their shoulder pads, and resumed practice at a slower pace.

Tagliabue spent Wednesday conferring with owners, aides and members of the Bush administration. Gene Upshaw, the president of the NFL Players' Association, who also spoke with the commissioner, and said he thought the final decision would be based on what the president advised Tagliabue to do.

Upshaw, who lives in the Washington area and saw the damage done to the Pentagon, said he talked with all 31 player representatives, almost all of whom wanted Sunday's games called off.

Tagliabue had several factors to consider.

One was Rozelle's decision after Kennedy's assassination 38 years ago.

Another was that there is no off week between the championship games and the Super Bowl this season, making it unlikely for the league could make up games. That could mean that 30 teams would play 15 games, with San Diego, scheduled off this week, playing 16.

A third was the reaction from some coaches and players who said that calling off the games would be giving in to terrorism.

Others simply thought it was too dangerous.

The Jets, Giants and Redskins were particularly affected by the attacks.

"It's something you would expect to see in a movie, but it's real life," offensive tackle Lomas Brown of the Giants said. "It makes you sick to your stomach. Every day, I would wake up and see the skyline. Now it's not the same skyline. It's a weird feeling."

Like O'Donnell, some players and coaches knew or were related to people who worked in the World Trade Center. Jacksonville coach Tom Coughlin's son was one of those who managed to escape.

Cleveland cornerback Lewis Sanders' father worked on the 70th floor of the building. He too got out safely, but Sanders spent two hours pacing until he heard his father made it.

San Francisco offensive tackle Dave Fiore, who grew up in New Jersey, also was worried.

"I've been on the phone trying to find out if my friends and family are all right," he said Wednesday. "There are still a lot of people that hopefully we can get in touch with."

Even though the league is not playing this week, players will still be paid their game salaries since they already count against the league's salary cap.

Many teams planned to handle this week like a bye week, holding practices through Friday, and then giving the players the weekend off.

"Most of them will probably just sit back and relax," said one NFL front-office executive. "I don't think they're going to be heading out of town, even if that's something they would want to do."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.