The NFL will play all 16 games on its regular-season schedule and is trying to find a solution that would let it have the normal allotment of 12 playoff teams as well.
The league would like to move the Super Bowl from Jan. 27 to a week or perhaps two weeks after that in New Orleans, an unprecedented move that would save about $50 million, the amount that would be lost if wild-card games were eliminated.
"Moving the Super Bowl is the only sensible way," Steelers President Dan Rooney said of the various plans the NFL is considering in order to salvage the wild-card playoff weekend.
Rooney said the league also was contemplating a rescheduled format that would have each team play three games in a 14-day period.
"I just don't think that flies," he said.
He said there were only two realistic options: Drop the wild-card games or move the Super Bowl.
"They'll throw that third option in, but it's very, very unlikely," Rooney said.
The Super Bowl never has been moved from its original date and never has been played in February. If it is moved by two weeks, it would be scheduled Feb. 10.
The NFL is trying to determine if there would be enough hotel and convention space available in New Orleans for a new Super Bowl week.
The 16 games postponed by the terrorist attacks Sept. 11 will be played Jan. 5-7, which were the original dates for the wild-card playoff games.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the league's competition committee voted unanimously to keep the 16-game format, but the committee is looking at ways to keep the normal complement of 12 playoff teams rather than eight.
"This would be the best of both worlds. If they can keep the 16-game schedule and the six wild cards, then everybody's happy. It's just back to business," said Coach Mike Sherman of Green Bay, one of many teams whose playoff chances would be hurt if the NFL cut back on wild cards.
"I'll be curious to see what follows after this," added Andy Reid of Philadelphia, another team that might be affected. "I'd hate to disrupt the playoffs in that situation. ... I'm sure they'll come up with an answer for it. They understand the importance of the playoffs."
As for the playoffs, Tagliabue said:
"We continue to work on keeping six division winners, six wild cards and our entire postseason format intact. Several options have been presented to us in recent days that would help us accomplish that. If we cannot resolve our entire postseason lineup in a satisfactory fashion, we then will go to a system of six division winners and two wild-card teams for this one season only."
On option being discussed is to schedule most of the potential playoff teams for Jan. 5, then play the wild-card games Jan. 9. The next round would be played Jan. 13-14 with the championship games as scheduled Jan. 20 -- most likely with four exhausted teams.
Another would be to play the title games Jan. 27, as a doubleheader at the Superdome. The Super Bowl would be played the next week at another site with New Orleans promised another game in the future.
The 16-game season appeared to be a certainty soon after Tagliabue announced Thursday that last week's games were off because of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
One reason is financial. If the league had played 15 games, 15 teams would have played seven home games instead of eight, missing out on one lucrative gate. And the league would owe the networks $40 million to $60 million for the wild-card games that would not be played if the alternate scenarios don't work out.
Another was practical. San Diego was scheduled to be off last week. So the Chargers would have ended the season having played 16 games while the others would have played 15.
And a third seemed to be that most players and coaches wanted a full schedule.
But the players and coaches also wanted a full playoff schedule. If options can't be worked out, however, they won't get that.
"Fewer playoff teams is basically going to take the playoffs out of a lot of teams' reach," said Steelers offensive tackle Wayne Gandy.
"By December, maybe even November, guys are going to get down on themselves because they're going to realize only four teams are going to make the playoffs and, in the AFC, there are a lot of good teams. It's going to be a challenge for everybody."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NFL sticks with 16-game schedule 
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