It's Been 19 Years Since Time, and Sports Stood Still
The date on the calendar has kept moving, but today, Friday, September 11, 2020, as we look back, the memories and images remain etched in the minds of those of us who lived through this date in 2001.
That day in 2001 looked very similar to this one 19 year s later. A bright, sunny, beautiful sky above greeted our nation then and now. Even though it was all those years ago and our world has moved forward, yet continues to endure the impacts of a worldwide pandemic, nothing we've suffered since March can come close to that day for me.
On that day, time, and every other thing stood still. It was a day that seemed to last more than 24 hours as we attempted to come to grips with what many of us witnessed live on television.
Sports stopped, and few people at that moment cared. Athletes were stunned and reeling, just like the rest of us. We were all in it together, then and now, but somehow today, it doesn't seem that many among us are indeed in it with the majority.
For everyone who sat in stunned silence and disbelief watching the towers fall and the continual replays of the planes flying into them, it changed you. You couldn't help it, it did, whether you remember, or want to admit it now.
While I would never want to endure those events again and pray our nation never does again, part of me feels that some of us have forgotten that day and those feelings.
Our younger generations that didn't live through that day and those immediately after don't, and perhaps can't understand what that day felt like for millions who's lives changed forever that day.
Replays for them are like replays from Pearl Harbor for my generation. We didn't live it and can't feel it the same way.
We are a nation amid a great divide on multiple issues, but at least for today, I pray we can leave those issues on the side and give this day what it deserves because, for those of us who lived it, we will never forget.
This is not a political forum, but on this date, and as I sat and watched history on the screen, I felt compelled to write this.
For anyone who finds this offensive, my sincerest apologies. For others like me, we will never forget.
Follow Greg on Twitter @GregAriasSports and @SIVanderbilt or Facebook at Vanderbilt Commodores-Maven.
A 29 year veteran of radio in the Middle Tennessee area and 16 years in digital and internet media having covered the Tennessee Titans for Scout Media and TitanInsider.com before joining the Sports Illustrated family of networks.