playRich CiminiSep 11, 2026, 06:00 AM ETCloseRich Cimini is a staff writer who covers the New York Jets and the NFL at ESPN. Rich has covered the Jets for over 30 years, joining ESPN in 2010. Rich also hosts the Flight Deck podcast. He previously was a beat writer for the New York Daily News and is a graduate of Syracuse University.Multiple AuthorsDeep sighs.
Long pauses. Cracked voices.Twenty-five years later, it’s still hard for some in the NFL community to talk about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — any community, for that matter. The pain and trauma from the tragedies in New York; Washington, D.C.; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, will be felt for generations.Like the rest of the country, the NFL was reeling in the aftermath. Players, coaches and officials were gripped by grief, fear and confusion — raw emotions that gradually shifted over the course of 12 tumultuous days.By the time they resumed games on Sept. 23 — a hiatus that included intense, behind-the-scenes meetings on when it was appropriate to play football again — the league had experienced a look-in-the-mirror moment that many believe set up a return that was galvanizing for the nation.To commemorate the anniversary, ESPN is sharing the 9/11 experiences of more than a dozen people: Players, coaches, team officials, a league official and a fan who believes his love for the New York Giants saved his life.Their memories are vivid.
They remember the sense of pride born from the restorative healing process, and they remember the profound sadness.Chris Mara, now a top Giants executive and a member of the Mara family that founded the franchise, began his interview with an apology.”Please bear with me, this isn’t going to be easy. I lost four close friends that day,” he said, clearing his throat. “But we’ll get through it.”A quarter-century later, the effects are still felt, but we examine how they got through the trying times — along with the lasting impact.Jump to a section: ‘All hell broke loose’ ‘Some things I wish I had never seen’ ‘We’re not going to play’ ‘There wasn’t a dry eye’ ‘The best in people”All hell broke loose’The NFL was waking up on a Tuesday (the day off for players) when, in the span of 51 minutes on a brilliantly sunny day, three hijacked planes struck the north and south towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. At 10:03 a.m., four minutes after the first of the two towers collapsed, United Flight 93 from Newark, New Jersey, crashed in a field near Shanksville as passengers fought a valiant battle against the hijackers.The New York Jets, based on Long Island at the time, were only 20 miles from the Towers.
The Giants, who lost the night before in Denver, arrived at Newark on a red-eye shortly before Flight 93 took off and about 90 minutes before the first tower was hit. Some in their traveling party exited the airport via the United terminal.What follows is an oral history, with accounts from people who were there (titles from 2001).Ernie Accorsi, Giants general manager: We didn’t find out until later that the gate next to ours was the terrorist plane, the one that crashed in Pennsylvania. [Giants personnel] walked right by that plane boarding.Michael Strahan, Giants player: It kind of messes with your mind because you realize at the time that we were leaving the airport, walking through the terminal, people were going to get on these flights that we all know did not end well.Tiki Barber, Giants player: I lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan when I was playing. I remember getting home, my wife was at work, I was home by myself. You started to hear rumblings from people texting you or calling you.
I didn’t answer my phone because I wanted to go to sleep. I kept getting these phone calls, phone calls, phone calls, text messages.Eventually I answered one and they said, “Turn on your TV, this is crazy. Are you OK?”Herm Edwards, Jets coach: I can remember sitting in my office. It was a beautiful day.
From my office, you could always see planes going to LaGuardia.Around when 9/11 happened, I didn’t see any planes. I was like, “That’s strange. Why are there no planes in the air?” Usually, you see them. It didn’t sound right.
It didn’t look right. I turned the television on, and when I turned the television on, I saw it. I’m like, “Are you kidding me?”Vinny Testaverde, Jets player: A bunch of us were watching it unfold on TV in the trainers’ room, and you could see guys getting nervous and talking about what the possibilities were.Shortly after that, everyone took off and went home. I remember calling my wife on the way home, telling her to get the kids out of school.
We were all nervous, on edge.Strahan: I was at home, Montclair, New Jersey, sleeping. Phone rings, pick up the phone and someone says, “Look out the window.” And from where I lived, I had a view of the entire Manhattan skyline. I looked out the window, and I saw smoke coming from the first tower.Jason Garrett, Giants player: We lived on 79th Street and West End Avenue. … I think I fell asleep and then I just started hearing these fire trucks going by our window.
And it’s like sirens and trucks and sirens and trucks. And I’m thinking to myself, “What the hell is going on?”Joe Andruzzi, New England Patriots player: I was sitting in a dentist’s chair and heard on the radio that a plane hit the towers. So not thinking anything of it, I got back in my car. By then, the second plane had hit and it was all commotion on the radio.When I finally realized what the hell was really going on, my heart was in my throat.
I just had a gut feeling that one, if not two or three of my brothers [members of the FDNY] were all a part of it.Damien Woody, Patriots player: I was in shock at what I was watching, unfolding on television — an attack on our country, on American soil. That’s something I had never seen before. It was surreal, watching everything unfold in real time.Accorsi: All hell broke loose. From our practice field [in East Rutherford, New Jersey], you could see the towers smoking.Dave Szott, Washington player: I was home in Morristown [New Jersey].
Marty Schottenheimer was the coach and he let me have Monday and Tuesday off with my family. From the hill in my neighborhood, you could see the towers burning. We couldn’t get a hold of my brother, Kevin, who was working in Building 5 [at the World Trade Center]. To complicate matters, my brother is visually impaired.
He’s legally blind. … So now I have a visually impaired brother we can’t get a hold of, possibly involved directly.Mara: My daughter, Kate [an actress] was headed to L.A. from New York on an American Airlines flight that left basically when all the other planes that crashed took off. We went through many hours of trying to figure out where she was and was she being affected by this? Were there going to be any more planes that it was going to happen to?
We had no idea. It was pretty hairy.Barber: I didn’t know what to do. I always kind of know what to do. I’m aware, I feel like I can see things, I understand things.
I had no idea what to do and I felt lost.Kevin Mawae, Jets player: There are people who can tell you exactly where they were when JFK was shot. I know exactly where I was when the Challenger blew up in ’86. There are defining moments in people’s lives that change the entire world. You remember those things with clarity that’s [unbelievable]; 9/11 is the same way.Garrett: The world was about to change.’Some things I wish I had never seen’More than 3,000 people were killed in the attacks.
NFL teams returned to work the following day for practice even though there was uncertainty on whether the Week 2 games would be played. It was a time for reflection.In the ensuing days, the Jets and Giants boarded buses and visited Ground Zero to deliver supplies and boost the morale of rescue workers. The Washington players went to Arlington National Cemetery for a memorial service. Players visited fire departments, police stations and hospitals.S
Leave a Reply