The Miami Dolphins were going through the mundane motions during Thursday morning's practice when the roar of a commercial airliner, flying low over their Davie, Fla., facility, stopped everyone stone cold.

	Cincinnati Bengals receiver Marco Battaglia grew up in Queens, New York, and played collegiately at Rutgers University.

"Oh, my God," said defensive end Jason Taylor, thinking the worst.

The Fort Lauderdale Airport is only four miles away, but the flight embargo of the previous three days had lulled the players into an eerie sense of calm -- until this.

"It was weird," linebacker Zack Thomas said. "It was really quiet, and then ..."

And then ... precisely the same thing happened in Philadelphia. Running back Brian Mitchell, who had been discussing a disaster scenario involving an airplane with Chad Lewis, tapped the tight end and said, ominously, "Look."

Mitchell pointed to a commercial plane lifting off from Philadelphia International Airport. In a few seconds, the entire team stopped and stared.

The reason, quite simply, was fear.

For terror is the root of terrorism, and that was one of the primary objectives of those who took down the World Trade Center. In the case of the NFL's 2,000 players, the approximately 900 players in major league baseball and those on the rosters in major football conferences, it struck the intended mark.

The NFL and the major football conferences postponed this week's games, while baseball won't get back to work until Monday, leading to a palpable sense of relief.

It was felt Thursday in the New York Jets' locker room.

"Circumstances would have put us in jeopardy," Jets running back Curtis Martin said. "It's definitely the right thing to do. I don't see how you could make any other decision."

That scene played itself out, in varying hues, in the NFL's 31 team headquarters, among the major league baseball teams scattered around the country, home and away, and so many collegiate athletes who won't play for the rest of the week.

Boston College athletics director Gene DeFilippo understood. He postponed several of his school's athletic events.

"We've got F-16s flying over the city, the FBI looking through hotels 10 minutes from campus, stopping trains from Boston to Providence, and I'm going to play games -- are you nuts?"

In fact, according to Dr. Steven J. Berkowitz, medical director of the national center for children exposed to violence child development community policing program, irrationality is the norm in the wake of a crisis.

"That's what happens when something this terrible happens," he said Thursday. "Our intellectual capacity gets overwhelmed by our emotional response. We all have to fight to regain mastery and control of those responses.

"To think that because these people are athletes they don't have these conflicts, is just kind of silly."

Fear of flying
On Wednesday, New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde made national headlines when he admitted the thought of a flight to Oakland -- where the Jets were scheduled to play Sunday -- left him nervous.

	Passenger airplanes returned to the skies over the U.S. on Thursday. Some people greeted them with patriotism, while some flinched with fear.

"The last thing we want to do is get on a plane and go to California for a game when all four of those planes that were hijacked were going to California," he said. "My suggestion is if they want to play the games, each owner has to travel with his team to the game.

"Even if everything goes accordingly, by the time we get off the plane we will all be shot from the stress and nerves of not knowing ... We'll all be exhausted getting off that plane. I don't think anyone wants to play."

Testaverde's concerns were shared by many players.

"There's a lot of risk for teams traveling this weekend," Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Willie Anderson said Wednesday. "To think about playing a game this weekend, that's kind of hard."

Philadelphia linebacker Hugh Douglas asked, "Can't we bus down to Tampa? That's how we used to do it in college."

The Cleveland Browns already had made arrangements to travel to Pittsburgh by bus if the game was played.

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the players' fears were, "at least from my perspective, at the margin."

He added: "It's not our responsibility to make assumptions about the safety of air travel -- that's the FAA's jurisdiction. (In) Public (stadiums), we considered (their safety), but it came down to the loss of life, the need for the players to absorb what we've all been through.

"We cannot succumb to fear because we have enormous strength as a nation."

Said NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw: "Security is always an issue, moreso now than it's ever been. We'll examine all aspects of that. Obviously, we're affected by this. If improvements need to be made, we'll make them."

The fear of a terrorist attack on a stadium full of fans -- like the World Trade Center's twin towers, a symbol of powerful America -- flickered through many players' minds.

"We're in the heart of this," said Washington Redskins safety Keith Lyle, "and D.C. is a prime target."

The New York Giants, who train about six miles across the Hudson River from the WTC site, are painfully aware of their mortality, too.

"I don't think you will ever have the same sense of security," Giants offensive tackle Lomas Brown said Thursday. "You feel violated. The fire rescue people, airplane pilots -- everybody who once felt safe in their occupations."

Dr. Robert A. Rosenheck, director of the evaluation division of the national center for post-traumatic syndrome disorder, said the chance to reflect will give players a chance to reconstruct their image of the world.

"Trauma is a fundamental interruption in our assumptions of stability and order," Rosenheck said. "This is what happens when somebody dies that we're close to, or we're in a car crash. Our minds need time to absorb what's happened, put together images of who we are in the world. That affects professional athletes like anyone else."

The Giants' Brown concurred: "For those three hours when you're on the field, you're warriors, you're gladiators. You're not supposed to feel pain or remorse. Once you leave the field, you're a human being. You're a father, you're a son, you have feelings and everyday life goes on.

"This isn't part of everyday life."

Regaining control
The international Ryder Cup competition is set for Sept. 28-30 in Birmingham, England, but already there are questions whether it will tee off. Some members of the American and European teams are calling for a postponement.

	Golfer Justin Leonard practices his swing as news coverage of Tuesday's terrorist attack is shown on a monitor at the American Express Championship, which was canceled this week.

"I feel a lot less safe about flying to England than I did 24 hours ago," Stewart Cink told the Daily Express. "If someone wanted to strike at America, or freedom, or capitalism, the Ryder Cup would be a tempting event to hit. I don't think the Ryder Cup should go ahead, but there are lots of questions that need to be answered over the next few days. I will certainly be talking to the other members of the team about this."

Berkowitz, who deals with victims of traumatic events for a living at Yale University, understands the mentality.

"I feel for them. I understand what they're thinking: 'We can never be safe.' On some level, it's an irrational sense of fear. This is probably one of the safest moments in our history. There will be more security at airports and stadiums around the country. Despite knowing that, it's scary."

The way to regain control, Berkowitz said, is to turn passivity into activity, even after a period of mourning.

"Right now, football players are one of the things that can best do that in this country. They have the ability to show that we are still a people and football is, somehow, who we are.

"We have to take the helplessness and say, 'We're going to do something with it.' Whether it's giving blood or playing football, that's important. For Vinny Testaverde to throw a touchdown pass, that's going to help relieve concern and make people feel better."

The decision to postpone games was hardly unanimous. A significant number of NFL and major-league players were in favor of playing.

"Terrorist acts like this, the act itself is to try and defeat the moral fiber and character of the country," said Chicago Bears player representative Glyn Milburn. "By going forward, it sends a message to the people who did this: 'We understand you tried to do something, but we're not going to let this interfere with our everyday lives.' "

San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker, whose team has been marooned in Houston since Tuesday, said: "There's always a concern. But you can't live your life in fear. That's not living your life. If somebody wants to get you, they're going to get you anyway."

Tagliabue said a conversation with New York Gov. George Pataki helped him put the decision in a balanced context.

"We're not going to fear fear itself, as the saying goes," he said. "He emphasized that we'll go forward resolutely, but that did not mean we had to go to a sporting event at the first opportunity."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.