Normalcy in America After 9/11 Thanks to High School Football
Americans were stuck in a silent haze for several days in the wake of 9/11. The world froze. Planes stayed on the ground. Businesses closed. Sports postponed. Life stopped. The terror that struck on a beautiful Tuesday gave us the longest week of fear that most of us can remember.
That first Friday began the quest for normalcy. One of the first steps that many Americans took on September 14, 2001 was to go to a high school football game. The patriotic unity we can recall from that time began in small towns and communities from the East Coast to the Midwest and from Texas to California. I found myself at a crosstown rivalry matchup in Bloomington, Indiana. The North-South battle is always anticipated, but not like this. I don’t remember the game. I don’t remember who won. But I remember being there with a hot dog, a seat in the metal bleachers and the feeling that we will all be okay someday.
As we plod along with the pandemic that continues to grip America, we know that we will eventually return to normalcy just as we did 20 years ago. We sit in the stands again. We stand in line at the concession stand. We rise to welcome the student-athletes as they charge onto the field. It wasn’t the first thing we did with COVID-19 restrictions easing, but some days it feels like the first thing we do that feels like we’re moving forward.
A new generation of student-athletes are helping communities from Antioch, California to Alton, Illinois this fall. It was strange in March with some states playing spring football, but now it’s back to the September feeling we know all too well across America.
As we pause today to reflect on how the world changed 20 years ago today, it’s important to remember that when strange circumstances are placed upon us, we should embrace the normal whenever possible. I know that for my students at Yorkville High School in Northern Illinois, they can’t imagine a world without security at an airport. They can’t understand what it was like to hear five days of silence with no planes in the sky. But they can understand how much they appreciate just being able to go see their classmates on a Friday night under the lights in the fall.
To gaze up into the stands and see people, standing and cheering, unified as they stay safe. Just to see people in the stands, just to see kids on the field. That is something we can wrap our arms around. We did it in the wake of terrorism and we’re doing it in the wake of COVID-19. Because nothing ties us all together, woven through the fabric of civic pride, quite like high school football.
