Ready for an extra long day of Thanksgiving football to go with that second helping of turkey, stuffing, yams and cranberry sauce?

No, we didn't think so. It's unlikely the NFL is ready for such a scenario, either.

There are at least five options on the table, but NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue likely will announce on Tuesday that the league will play a 16-game schedule and reduce the number of wild-card qualifiers from three per conference to one.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said early Tuesday that the league will make a decision "within the next 24-48 hours."

Fittingly, the Thanksgiving option appeared to be the turkey of the bunch, according to some owners who were part of conference calls on Monday. One league official termed it "preposterous."

Believed to have been presented by the New Orleans Saints, the proposal would have moved most or all of the Week 12 games scheduled for Nov. 25-26, to Thanksgiving Day. The league then would have made up the Week 2 games that were supposed to be played last weekend on or near Tuesday, Nov. 27. On Sunday, Dec. 2, the schedule would pick up with Week 13.

In essence, the proposal would have forced teams to play three games in a 10-12 day period. While the proposal officially remains under consideration, some NFL officials and owners surveyed by ESPN.com acknowledged it has virtually no chance of approval. The CFL schedule often calls on its teams to play two games in a week or three games in two weeks.

"Over the weekend, I'm sure everyone had out a pencil and a legal pad and was trying to figure a way to compact the schedule," said Cincinnati owner Mike Brown. "But there are only so many options available, and only a couple make sense."

That hasn't kept team or league officials from postulating many reconfigurations of the schedule, most in an attempt to include 16 games and 12 playoff teams. That's a coupling that seems, though, too difficult for the league to work out.

One of the other scenarios discussed Monday involved pushing back the date of Super Bowl XXXVI, now scheduled for Jan. 27, by one week. But talking about it and doing it are different matters.

Bill Curl, the director of public relations for the Louisiana Superdome, told ESPN.com that the league has not requested, either formally or informally, that the date for the title game be changed. Jay Cicero of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation said the logistics would probably be too difficult to permit a switch. The city will play host to an automobile convention the week after Super Bowl XXXVI and many of the hotel rooms the NFL requires already are booked.

League owners also discussed on Monday a proposal in which they would play the 16-game schedule, but actually increase the number of playoff qualifiers to 16. That would include the three division winners and five wildcard teams from each conference. The NFL had a 16-team playoff pool in 1982, touted as the "Super Bowl Tournament," when a lengthy players strike shortened the regular season to just nine games.

But it appears that, the 16-team field proposal aside, the NFL will settle on a plan that won't include having its dessert and eating it, too.

The two most viable plans at the end of last week remained the two best options as the league resumed operations this week. The NFL will either play a 15-game schedule, deal with the inequities such an unbalanced slate presents, and retain the standard 12-franchise playoff format, or play 16 games and pare the playoff pool to eight clubs.

Talking turkey, it still appears the 16-game schedule with a reduced playoff field is the way Tagliabue is strongly leaning.

The commissioner, by the way, will attend the New York Giants-Kansas City Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. He will join with two of the NFL's most respected owners -- the Giants' Wellington Mara and Lamar Hunt of Kansas City -- to watch the league attempt to regain some sense of normalcy.

The commissioner on Monday also appointed a security task force and the group will meet via Tuesday conference call with the security directors of all the league stadiums. Heading up the task force will be NFL security director Milt Ahlerich and Lew Merletti, a former FBI official and current Cleveland Browns executive vice president for stadium security.

League sources acknowledged that security will be much tougher this weekend for fans, and that steps will be implemented that will preclude bringing coolers and large bags to games.

Information from SportsTicker was used in this report.