Sports, obviously, isn't the first thing that comes to mind when I think of 9/11. But the one sports figure I do associate with that awful day is Ed McCaffrey.
I'm not going to go into a "What I was doing on 9/11" post. I did that last year. I mentioned McCaffrey then, too. McCaffrey's broken leg, suffered making a spectacular catch in a Monday Night Football game against the Giants, is the last sports memory I, and a lot of sports fans, had before 9/11 took over. McCaffrey is our last link to normalcy.
On 9/11, I thought the events that I was experiencing were truly the beginning of the end. I really wanted to go back to the days of McCaffrey and Monday Night Football.
Ten years later, I think I know what 9/11 was. It was humanity on display. Humanity can be horrific and selfish. Humanity can be uplifting and selfless. We saw all of that on 9/11. It was a day when everyone, everywhere felt truly human, in all that the word entails.
Today, 10 years later, we go back to football -- it's opening day in the NFL. We'll celebrate the "superhuman" and roll around in hyperbole. We'll call games, events and achievements "unbelievable."
But those of us who lived through 9/11 know what "unbelievable" really is.
It happened 10 years ago. This very day. The day when we wished we could all go back to talking about Ed McCaffrey again.
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