Receiver Tim Brown met with Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis on Tuesday and has another meeting scheduled to discuss whether he has a future with the team.
Brown, the longest-tenured Raider, appeared resigned to the possibility he may have to continue his 17-year career in another city.
``You know, if you asked me that a week ago, I would've said no,'' Brown said Tuesday of ending his Raiders career and joining a new team. ``But certainly, even standing out here, that's not something I want to think about. I don't know what could happen to change what is going on, and certainly you don't want to see anybody get injured or anything of that nature to change your situation.
``I mean, there are going to be things I'm going to have to think about hard in the future, and we'll make those decisions.''
New coach Norv Turner plans to use his young players, and fifth-year pro Jerry Porter is on track to becoming the franchise's receiver of the future. The Raiders also have 41-year-old Jerry Rice and rookies Johnnie Morant and Carlos Francis, along with a handful of other receivers they'd like look at.
So will the Raiders have room for the 38-year-old Brown, who finished last season with 52 catches for 567 yards and two touchdown?
``This is not an easy decision for anybody,'' Brown said. ``You're talking about the so-called Mr. Raider the last 16 years. ... The timing of the situation, I'd rather do it now than the last cut of the year, for sure.''
Brown has been durable, missing only one game over the past 11 seasons, and is a respected leader.
During the Raiders' embarrassing 4-12 season a year ago -- the worst collapse by a team that reached the Super Bowl the previous season -- Brown spoke up in a team meeting and asked his teammates to shut up and play.
It was his effort to get the Raiders back on track after the franchise's worst start in 39 years. It also followed public criticism by cornerback Charles Woodson of then-coach Bill Callahan.
Brown even offered to let his teammates blame him for all the problems instead of their coaches or other players. About 10 of the Raiders watched a Monday night game at Brown's house.
But after the season on his weekly radio show, Brown accused Callahan of sabotaging the season in order to get fired and said some players had to be held back from physically going after the coach.
Callahan later denied it and said Brown was just upset after being told in October that Porter would replace him in the starting lineup.
Brown has been a Raider since they drafted him in the first round in 1988 after he won the Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame. He has caught 1,070 passes for 14,734 yards and 99 touchdowns. He's averaged 13.8 yards per catch and started 198 of his 240 games.
His most productive season came in 1997, when he caught 104 passes for 1,408 yards and five touchdowns. Brown's 11 TDs in 2000 were a career high.
``Obviously I've never been a guy who ran 40 yards down the field, but what I do is what I do,'' he said. ``And if my mind-set is still on doing those things, I believe I can still do them, and my mind is certainly toward still playing football.''
