The NFL’s only 25th anniversary 9/11 memoriam, conducted during a game actually played on Sept. 11, is happening in Australia, where it is already Friday morning and the Los Angeles Rams are playing the San Francisco 49ers.
The ceremony on another continent was respectful.
It was sobering.
And it was cool.
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The sold-out crowd at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria, stood and eventually cheered the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner” by New York-based group Infinity Song.
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And then they sang along when Cody Simpson belted out Advance Australia Fair.
A joint contingent of U.S. Marines and sailors bore the colors alongside members of the Australian Defence Force (yes, they spell it with a “c” instead of an “s”).
During the NFL’s first-ever regular season game in Australia, pregame ceremonies honored the 25th anniversary of 9/11 through the league’s Salute to Service partnership with Tragedy Assistance Program survivors who attended the game.
The NFL Foundation also supported week-long activities for military families of the fallen with a connection to 9/11, including a ceremony at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.
Netflix, which is streaming the game, ran a segment memorializing 9/11 and the NFL’s reaction on the tragic day and the decision about what to do afterward.
“I had gotten into the office, and we actually heard the plane go over,” commissioner Roger Goodell said of the day when he was still the league director of club relations and international development. “People walking in saying, ‘Did you hear that?’ And I said, ‘I heard it. What was it?'”
We now know what it was …
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Former New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde said he wanted his team to forfeit if the league intended to play games the following weekend.
“I told the Jets that I didn’t think it was the right decision to play,” Testaverde said. “They pretty much to a man had my back.”
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It obviously didn’t come to that. The NFL paused the 2001 season.
The league then returned to play on Sept. 23, 2001, after postponing all of their Week 2 games.
The NFL will continue its 2026 Week 1 commemoration of the 9/11 terrorist attacks during its games on Sunday and Monday night.
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