The NFL and 9/11: Why Both Should Be Honored

COMMENTARY | With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 on a Sunday, and coinciding with the first Sunday of the NFL's regular season, there is a lot of talk about football not being appropriate to play on the same day we are mourning the loss of those who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

I tend to have the opposite feelings about the appropriateness of football and the memory of that horrific day.

The goal of the terrorists was to hurt America, and interrupt the daily activities of our lives. The last thing they would want, is for life to continue as if it hadn't happened. One of my most vivid memories of that day, was related to football.

The night before the terrorist attack, there was a Monday night football game between the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants. Although I'm a huge Oakland Raiders fan, I lived in the Denver area, and had always liked the Broncos wide receiver, Ed McCaffrey.

During that game, McCaffrey suffered a career ending injury, and one of the worst I've ever seen on a football field. The Giants' Shaun Williams tackled McCaffrey with a hit so hard that you could hear his leg snap as he fell to the ground with his leg twisting in a way that made it look like his limb did not belong to his body. That play has been forever etched in my mind.

That Tuesday morning, McCaffrey's injury was on the top of my mind, and I imagined it would be all over the news, as well as the talk of my office in Boulder, Colo. I had turned the news on before heading into work, expecting to have to close my eyes as they replayed the hit on the injured player again and again.

Instead, as we all know, that is not what happened. My morning news was interrupted with the sight of the planes heading into the Twin Towers.

Football took a break during the following week, but returned in a big way. There were American flags flying everywhere, and people came together, united as citizens of the country we loved. We would not allow ourselves to be divided, and for football to go on was another way of showing that we could not be defeated.

A decade later, we still don't need the terrorists to take away something that is very American, and that is our football.