NFL club owners plan to decide today...

NFL club owners plan to decide today whether to field teams during a threatened strike by the players following the second game of the season.

“There’s a nucleus of strong feeling in favor of playing games in the event that there’s a work stoppage,” John Jones, spokesman for the Management Council, the league’s bargaining arm, said. “I think the reasoning is based on the fact that in ’82 when there was a work stoppage that lasted 57 days, the owners simply stopped doing business.”

On Tuesday, the NFL Players Assn. announced a Sept. 22 strike date, which comes after the second week of the season.

Nearly all of the teams have been offering players cut from the roster “strike option contracts,” featuring $1,000 bonuses for players who agree to return to action in the event of a players strike.