There’s only one word to describe what happened at MetLife Stadium just before kickoff on Sunday: emotional.
On the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, NYPD officer Brianna Fernandez was tabbed to sing the National Anthem before the Jets’ opener with the Ravens – but Officer Fernandez only got a few bars in before the entire stadium joined in and sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” in unison:
It was an emotional moment for everyone in the stadium – especially Jets head coach Robert Saleh, whose brother, David, was working in the South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001, and narrowly escaped before the building collapsed.
“There’s no doubt. It’s amplified because it is 9/11 in this city,” Saleh said earlier this week. “Not so much for me, but for the people who are in the thick of it. Obviously, I know it’s documented about my brother, but I heard stories this week about the cars being at (the Meadowlands) for months afterward because no one could pick them up. And then the Long Island train stations and the tragedies that led up to this.”
The Jets were also the home team in the last game played at MetLife Stadium on a Sept. 11 – the season opener in 2016, the 15th anniversary of the attacks, when they hosted Cincinnati.
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