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Anniversary

One former reporter's most vivid memory of Sept. 11, 2001 took place on Sept. 12.

The actual day remains somewhat blurred. It was "everybody report in" at the Herald, of course. Wrote a column of which I don't remember a word. Spent hours and hours on the phone trying to confirm a tip that former Bruin Ace Bailey had been on one of the planes that struck the World Trade Center. He was. I was better off than colleagues Rich Thompson and Steve Conroy, who spent their day talking to dead people, or rather, listening to the victim's answering machine messages.

At Foxboro Stadium the next day, the Patriots, not knowing what to do any more than anyone else, attempted to hold their normal media session for a Wednesday. Coach Bill Belichick and then-quarterback Drew Bledsoe couldn't think of much to say and who could blame 'em. Then came guard Jow Andruzzi.

As the NFL later made much of, Andruzzi came from a New York Citu family where practically every one of his male relatives, dad, uncles, brothers, etc, was either a cop or a firefighter. A number of them answered the call to the WTC the day before. Thankfully, all had survived.

Many of their fellow cops and firefighters didn't, and those included many folks who'd been Andruzzi's friends and neighbors, men he'd known his entire life. Andruzzi was a study in psychic overload, burdened with relief, grief, guilt, and rage to such an extent it was apparent he wasn't going to be playing ball next Sunday no matter what the NFL decided.

That's not the memory. At the end of a wrenching 15 minutes, Andruzzi tried to sum up his feelings for the reporters present.

"Don't worry guys," Andruzzi said, "we're going to get through this."

This was the first, last, and doubtless only time I heard a professional athlete use the word "we" to include the sports media. You'd have to belong to either group to fully understand just what a leap of consciousness Andruzzi made in that one sentence. It was one of the most moving moments of my life, and pride in my fellow citizens, all of them, was what moved me the most..

Wish to hell it had never happened.

posted by Michael Gee @ 9:00 AM