Note: This blog focuses primarily on sports and different issues that it faces. Today, however, I'm going to take a little time out from sports to reflect on the September 11th attacks and their impact on my life and on American culture, though I will try to include sports as best I can. Back to regular programming in the next entry - I promise.

I'm sure that a lot of people are blogging about the 9/11 attacks today, and rightfully so. It's the generational equivalent of the JFK assassination; people will always remember where they were when it happened, how they felt, who they called first, how long they watched television after it happened. The September 11th attacks defined this decade, and many lives moving forward. The US is currently involved in two wars overseas as retaliation/prevention for these attacks, and hundreds of American soldiers have been killed in addition to those who tragically died as the World Trade Center towers fell. No one will ever be the same after these attacks.

There are of course a few things that stand out to me about that Tuesday afternoon in 2001. I was a sophomore in high school, and had just sat down for second period in Mrs. Mayer's Algebra II class, room 316. Mrs. Mayer used the overhead projector for just about everything in that class, and that day the light bulb went out. I volunteered to go get another one for her from the media center/library downstairs. As I walked into the media center, I watched on TV as the second plane flew into the south World Trade Center tower. I asked aloud, "What movie is this?" A friend turned around and said, "That just happened in New York City 5 minutes ago." At that moment, I knew my life had changed forever. I immediately returned to Algebra II with the light bulb, but didn't take a single note in the class. I went down to the guidance office to call my mother to ask about a family member who we had just visited in NYC and who worked in the World Trade Center. She was fine, having stayed at home that day for the roofer to come to their house. Obviously the rest of the day - and the better part of the week, really - was spent checking in with family and watching the horror unfold on television.

As I continue to pursue my career in athletics, the thing that stands out to me most about the 9/11 attacks with regards to sports is how quickly people would turn to sports to help them cope with the unexplainable. I distinctly remember a St. Louis Rams player running out of the tunnel with a massive US flag and the crowd going wild. I remember the Patriots won the Super Bowl that season, the first of their three titles this decade, but how that one meant the most because they were the Patriots...in a time when the country was as patriotic as they had ever been. The World Series included the New York Yankees, a team who represents the city of New York like no other professional franchise can. The country mourned and turned to sports at the same time to help fill the sad, inexplicable, gaping hole that the terrorist attacks had created. The athletic arena became a rallying place, an outlet to forget - for at least a moment - the pain that was caused by those terrible memories.

I was working the other day when I came across a roster for a pee wee football team. I looked at some of the birth dates, specifically the years that the players were born in: none of them was born before the year 2000. They were too young to remember the world before 9/11, before we were all impacted in such a jarring manner. I sit here today a changed person because of September 11th, 2001. I think we all do - we're better Americans, better friends, better husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters...because we understand how fragile life is, and how lucky we are to be Americans. And when those children on that pee wee football roster ask their parents what happened on September 11th, 2001, their parents will take a deep breath, and recount a similar story to the one I just told you, the places and people only slightly different, and their recantation will be as vivid and detailed as it ever was.

Because as Americans, we simply can never forget what happened on 9/11. And I know that I never will.