The league that discourages its games from ending in stalemates has agreed to take labor talks into overtime.

After meeting for more than eight hours Thursday with federal mediator George Cohen in Washington, NFL owners and the players association decided to extend Thursday's 8:59 p.m. (PT) expiration of the collective bargaining agreement by 24 hours.

By keeping the clock running during their 10th negotiating session with Cohen, the league avoided, at least temporarily, its first work stoppage in 24 years.

The NFL Players Association had planned to file papers to decertify the union by 1 p.m. Thursday unless significant progress was made on a new CBA.

The owners would have responded by locking out players by 9:01 p.m. Thursday.

"To all the fans who dig our game, we appreciate your patience as we work through this," union executive director DeMaurice Smith said as he left the negotiation session. "We're going to keep working. We want to play football."

Said commissioner Roger Goodell as he left: "We are working as hard as we can."

All parties are adhering to Cohen's gag order on labor matters.

The purpose for decertifying the union is to permit players who are locked out to sue the league under antitrust laws, claiming restraint of trade. Without decertification, the union would have to wait six months to file a suit after the CBA expired.

According to multiple reports, star quarterbacks Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees said they would be part of any such suit.

Talks were scheduled to continue Friday morning. But The Associated Press reported the sides weren't expected to resume face-to-face bargaining. Instead they were to meet separately with Cohen to hash out whether to prolong the extension, and if so, for how many days.

By 8:59 p.m. Friday, either an accord must be reached on a new CBA or the sides must agree to extension of the current agreement. The union still will have the option of decertifying if an impasse can't be broken.

Owners could also still vote to lock players out.

Extending the deadline might be the most significant agreement the two sides have reached.

Washington Redskins player representative Vonnie Holliday said the two sides were "still apart."

"I don't see how we can be that close right now unless somebody is going to pull a rabbit out of the hat," he said. "I just don't see it."

The league and its players are thought to be far apart on how to divide $9 billion in annual revenue. Proposals for an 18-game regular season, a rookie wage scale, retirement benefits and other issues remain unresolved.

Owners apparently made enough concessions Thursday to convince the union to continue their dialogue for at least one more day.

Joining Smith at the mediation session Thursday were Brees, union president Kevin Mawae, Indianapolis center Jeff Saturday, Pittsburgh backup quarterback Charlie Batch and several others, including current and former players.

Also on hand for the NFL were New York Giants owner John Mara and Green Bay president Mark Murphy, who are members of the league's labor committee, which has the authority to call for a lockout.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama made it clear he had no plans to intervene.

"I've got a lot of other stuff to do," he said. "You've got owners, most of whom are worth close to a billion dollars. You've got players who are making millions of dollars. My working assumption, at a time when people are having to cut back, compromise and worry about making the mortgage and, you know, paying for their kid's college education, is that the two parties should be able to work it out without the president of the United States intervening."