Tom Rock: 25 years later, Jets' Aaron Glenn remembers Sept. 11 attacks and how everyone came together
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn looks on during the second half of a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium on Aug. 14. Credit: Jim McIsaac
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Everyone who was in or around New York on 9/11 has a story. Aaron Glenn has his too.
The head coach of the Jets was still a cornerback for the Jets back then, playing in what would wind up being his last season for them. It was a Tuesday morning which meant it was an off day but Glenn, who was dealing with a knee injury, was in the training room at Hofstra. He also was on the phone with his wife.
“And my phone just goes off,” he recalled on this current Tuesday, a day in which he and his team began practice preparations for their season opener against the Titans under those same crystal blue skies that stood out 25 years ago.
He was unsure why he’d lost that signal, but in 2001 those things happened more often than now. Soon, though, he saw on television why this interruption in service had taken place.
“Just seeing exactly what was happening — it was almost live at that point — you are in this state of ‘Wow’ that you can’t believe it,” he said. “That day was a change-of-life moment.”
The NFL would eventually cancel the coming weekend’s slate of games, a decision nudged along by the Jets’ refusal to play their scheduled contest against the Raiders.
A quarter-century later, the NFL will commemorate the events of 9/11 this Sunday. All Week 1 games will feature tributes that will include in-stadium moments and broadcast integrations (including live national anthem coverage across all the 1 o’clock games). There will be in-stadium branding and "Never Forget” end zone stencils, and the officials will use special 9/11 tribute-branded coins for the coin toss, which will be auctioned to benefit the league’s September 11 charitable partners.
New York-specific tributes will take place during the Sunday Night Football game between the Cowboys and Giants at MetLife Stadium. Players, coaches and staff from both teams will wear commemorative NYPD, FDNY and PAPD hats and warmup shirts.
The NFL Foundation, in partnership with the Jets, Giants and Commanders will make a joint $1 million contribution to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
“We continue to honor the memory of those we lost on September 11 and the heroes whose courage and sacrifice inspired our nation,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement last week. “As the NFL family reflects on this day 25 years later, we remember those who were taken from us and support those who continue to carry the pain of that day. We also recommit ourselves to the spirit of resilience, community, and service that remains an enduring example for future generations.”
Clearly, the NFL does not forget.
But what about those who do not remember?
Increasingly, there are fewer and fewer players in the league who were even alive on that day in 2001, nevermind have concrete memories or personal associations with it. Eighteen of the 53 players on the Jets’ active roster are younger than 25. Two current Jets players, Andre Cisco and Jeremy Ruckert, grew up on Long Island. They were both 1-year-olds when the planes hit the towers. Defensive tackle Jowon Briggs was even younger. He was born on Sept. 1, 2001.
Which leaves Glenn and his first-person accounts of that awful day in the position of having to try to relate his experience – New York’s experience – to them.
It’s an impossible task.
“I don’t think you can relate any aspect of life to that,” Glenn said.
What he can do is talk about what happened after it. How the communities came together and the country came together. How for a while there were no rivalries in sports or among fandoms.
He does get some help with that.
“Obviously I was too young to remember,” Ruckert, who grew up in Lindenhurst, told Newsday. “But being from New York, no matter who you talk to, family members, friends, teachers, coaches, they all remember exactly what they were doing when it happened.”
He said he tries to remind teammates who come from all over the country – from all over the world really -- of the local significance of that global event.
“It was a horrible event, but it brought people together as a city, as the tri-state area, and as a country,” Ruckert said. “Being from New York there is definitely a sense of pride in that.”
Jets safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who was just about to turn five in Old Bridge, NJ, about an hour away from Manhattan, has the same perspective. He has fuzzy memories of watching the towers fall on the news later that day, but he has a sharp understanding of what followed.
“It was a moment that united us,” he told Newsday. “Obviously you never want tragedy to strike, but at the end of the day it made people put their differences aside and realize that we are all under one flag.”
“It’s still really sad to think about the lives that were lost,” Glenn said. “But it still makes you proud of the people who were a part of the help and saved [others]. I’m proud of that. I’m proud to know that we had men and women who risked their lives for the well-being of other people. That’s what we’re made of and sometimes we lose sight of that.”
This week, especially, no one should.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
