9/13/01
Last night, I started to write about the tragedy suffered by our
country but I didn't. I couldn't. Words became so small, so painfully
incapable of making sense of something so absolutely horrific. Terrorism
and football was so outlandishly unconnected that I felt ashamed
that I even considered it. So with the rest of the world I merely
watched the surreal spectacle on the television, kissed my wife
and tucked my son snugly into bed and hoped that the next day would
wake me from the nightmare. Sadly, the next day brought only more
pictures of destruction and anguish.
Now the NFL has elected to cancel the games this weekend. Instead
of matching receivers to cornerbacks, reviewing stats or trying to
explain the details of a game, I am left without my normal duties
of the day to fill my time and yet am not able to enjoy my day off
from a world that is now changed forever.
So I wonder - was that the right choice?
There was a call from players and coaches to cancel the games. As
fans, how could we watch the Ravens host the Vikings knowing that
nearby a building still smoldered, with untold bodies trapped in the
debris? How could we sip a beer and cheer as the Giants hosted the
Packers when two 110 story buildings across the Hudson River were
gone? Mounded in a tangle of concrete and steel, entombing likely
thousands of fellow Americans?
It seemed frivolous, maybe even insulting to play a game in light
of the reality so cruelly thrust in front of us. And yet, not playing
this weekend also seemed like letting the bad guys win. It seemed
like playing exactly into their hand and not standing strong during
a time we need to collectively brush off the dust, pick ourselves
up and show the world that we could bounce back. It seems like backing
down and that is not the American way.
In the end, the choice was made - no games this week. While my first
instincts was that "the show must go on", two days later I agree with
the choice.
Football is just a game. A gracefully violent, intellectually physical
game played by well paid men. It is the same game that likely you
played as a kid, without pads in the rain on a rock strewn field.
The NFL represents that game played at its' highest level, but it
is a game just the same. And spectator sports do play their role in
our society, they offer us excitement, entertainment, escapism and
even a stronger sense of identity. But it is only a game, something
that comes after the work is done, after the bills are paid and the
obligations of the individual and society have been met.
The horror visited upon our native soil is beyond comprehension or
understanding. It has intentionally flown straight into our consciousness
and altered the safe view of our daily lives. We all learned about
liberty and freedom as kids in school but the lessons have not stopped.
America is not a static cornerstone of the world, it is but one member
of a dynamic international community and it is our very strengths
and excesses that have attracted those that would wish us harm. The
price for our society is still being paid and now, unlike ever before,
that price is being paid by your neighbor, your friend or your coworker.
Innocent children, mothers and brothers.
And through the wonders of the media, we have all watched and gasped
at the happenings of September 11th. Maybe through it all, we have
started to put it behind us. In our own sense of self-preservation,
started to rationalize to ourselves how this did occur and yet would
not happen to us personally. This is simply not true anymore and maybe
it never really was. Unlike football, there is no person that you
can merely point at across the line of scrimmage and know that he
is the opponent. Through terrorism, cowards are able to murder and
disrupt from the shadows, and slink back once their deed is done.
It leaves us with the dead and dying, wondering who did it and how
and why.
We have now gotten over the shock. It would be easy to dismiss this
as something that happened once, that did not happen to me. That we
need to get back to business as usual and within that show the world
that football still should be played and that my fantasy team still
has relevance and that no one can be allowed to change our society
if we do not let them. That simply is not true.
Society has changed and like it or not, the terrorists accomplished
their goal. This tragic event is something far more than an act that
destroyed four airplanes and numerous buildings. This was the wholesale
murder of thousands of our countrymen. After two days, the phenomenal
film footage has all been seen and the hunt for the soon to be damned
has began. We could cheer on our efforts to find those responsible
and extract our revenge. We undoubtedly will do just that in good
time.
But what we need is a national "time-out". It is a time for mourning
and a time to put faces and names to all those who perished. Innocent
people that were at the wrong place at the wrong time. It is time
to start to mend the tear in the social fabric. That cannot happen
by continuing on as if society is still the same and that not recognizing
that we hurt is somehow "showing them".
In taking this pause from our normal lives, we must express our sorrow.
We must open our eyes to the beauty of our society and the costs that
are incurred to maintain it. Sports are merely a controlled, microcosm
of our human condition. It is not appropriate to watch a contrived
competition when current reality is being played out that makes a
mockery of millionaires coming together for sixty minutes with a clean
set of rules and a clear objective.
If you want to see teamwork, dial in to film of firemen, policemen,
doctors, steel workers and just people off the street who immediately
and with selfless abandon have instantly come together to perform
the hardest of tasks in the worst possible environment. A society
that has quickly coalesced into a 24x7 unit working in a frenzy in
the hopes that they might find even one person still alive. All the
while picking through the rubble and human remains.
If you want heroes, forget about football and look at a thousand people
currently disregarding sleep, money and personal danger in order to
do a job that must be done. If we can look up to a sports star, then
what are we to make of Jeremy Glick? We marvel at a touchdown or homerun,
but Mr. Glick put his 2 month old child down and along with other
passengers attacked the hijackers of Flight 93. He died and in doing
so may have saved a thousand other lives. Heroes? What about 202 firemen
and 85 policemen that rushed into a burning building in order to save
lives and were themselves crushed in the collapse?
There were a thousand courageous efforts that day which none of us
will ever know, ones that made a huge difference to our American society
and saved lives. They were more than badges and raincoats and briefcases.
They were us. And sadly they will never receive the honor and glory
that they deserve. If you want action boiled down to fundamental perfection,
listen to the final words spoken by passengers with cellular phones.
When life is at its most precious point, it is about speaking with
loved ones and connecting with those that have shared in your existence.
If you want to see valiant efforts, watch the workers covered in soot
and dust choking for breath, coughing while holding on to a wall and
then wiping tears from his face and returning to search for survivors.
People hanging from 80th floor windows to avoid the flames until they
made the conscious choice to die by jumping. Parents holding children
under their arm as they raced frantically from the falling debris.
And then compare that to the challenge of a two-minute drive before
half-time.
Those very qualities that we admire most from football or any other
sport are being played out on life's stage, not a stadium. And it
is done by Americans. By the very best of all of us at time when there
were no substitutions or a chance to kill the clock. We can watch
the valor, selflessness and cohesion that happens at an exponentially
higher level than any sport can provide.
America needs this time-out.
We need this time to put faces on people and names to faces. To gain
a better perspective of what has happened to all of us and how through
the tragedy and sorrow we can extract lessons learned. We need to
grieve for all of us. The innocent victims, survivors and an entire
nation of horrified onlookers. We must hold memorials not for the
dead but as a testament to life. We must hold up those who have persevered
against the most terrible of conditions. We must acknowledge, honor,
weep, consecrate and rededicate. We need a day when everything was
planned but nothing really happens. A day that we can play with our
kids, call our parents and write our friends. A day that we can appreciate
our freedoms and recognize the sanctity of what is important in our
lives.
Football will happen again. Soon enough we will return to our daily
lives and for so many of us, life will change little if at all. We
will see revenge enacted and justice pursued. We will see us as a
nation hunt down the cowardly murderers and in some way attempt to
make right that which is so wrong. All things shall pass. Before too
long we will all come to grips with the most beautiful, terrible,
invigorating and cruelest of all truths. Life goes on. We just need
a time-out.
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