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by
Joe - jgand@pcfootball.net
9-10-06
It
is time once again…….
….time
to remember the fallen.
I
can’t envision a time when I will not have to re-print this
column.
Then
again, five years ago I could never envision a time when I
would ever have to write a column like this in the first
place.
However,
Patriot Day is this Monday, and as become a tradition here at
PCFootball.net, it is time for me to re-print a certain column
that I wrote and posted on May 31, 2002. As a matter of fact,
it was the second column that I ever wrote for this site, and
it is one that I will never forget….
I still remember where I was. I don’t think I will ever
forget where I was when I heard the news.
I was getting
ready for work in my living room, sitting in front of the TV
watching SportsCenter as usual. ESPN News broke in with
a special bulletin, with some news that The
World
Trade
Center
in
New York
had been attacked. They wanted us to turn to ABC News
for more details.
I didn’t
think much of it and I thought that it wasn’t a big deal
because they didn’t give out very many details. I continued
to watch SportsCenter as I put my shoes on, and I saw it down
on their sports ticker. They usually flashed the scores from
the previous night’s games, but on this September morning
they flashed something that I will never forget –
WTC collapse
after…
…planes
crashed into towers…
…tune to ABC
for more details.
The first
thing that I thought was “What?” “WHAT?!? NO FUCKING
WAY!!!”
I grabbed the
remote and punched the buttons to switch to ABC as fast as I
could…
…and
that’s when I saw it…
…a huge
cloud of dust in the place where the Twin Towers once stood.
It was at this
moment that my wife decided to come out of the bedroom. The
first thing she saw was the look on my face. She kept asking
me what was wrong and my mouth could barely form the words.
“The
World
Trade
Center
in
New York
was attacked. Both of the towers have collapsed. They’re
gone.”
She came in
and watched the TV with me, and we both sat there, dumbfounded
as they replayed the collapse of Tower 1. Neither one of
us could believe what had happened. But there was more
– a plane had crashed into the Pentagon as well. Not only
that, but there was another plane still out there, and it was
a plane that was supposed to be on its way to the West Coast!
Specifically LAX!
Since I live
in the
Southern California
area my mind raced as I tried to think of all the targets that
terrorists could possibly hit out here. The most obvious
was the Boeing plant at the
Long Beach
Airport
just a few miles down the street from where I live. The
next one was TRW, just a few miles away from where I work!
Both companies are defense contractors, and they would have
made some pretty good targets. I called into work to get
some advice on whether I should come in or not because we
didn’t know if we were going to be safe. I was told to
come on in.
I went in and
kept a radio at my desk so that I could get the latest news
and pass it on to everyone else at the office. As the
day wore on we gradually heard the story. About how the
planes were hijacked and deliberately crashed into the towers.
We also heard of the fourth plane that had gone down in a
Pennsylvania
field, and how they weren’t sure if it had been hijacked or
had gone down on its own. Later we would hear the
stories of how the passengers had decided to fight back, and
paid for their bravery with their lives.
We all know
the story that followed – the rescue effort that turned into
recovery. The clean up of what became known as “Ground
Zero” which was just completed yesterday. The
deployment of troops to
Afghanistan
to find Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Queda network. W’s
stirring call to arms before a joint session of congress.
The donations that poured in to
New York
and the tributes that followed.
So I know what
you are thinking. What does any of this have to do with PC
Football?
Nothing…
…and
everything.
Recently there
was a football game played – a real football game. But
these were not NFL players that took the field. No,
these were true heroes. These were the players from the
FDNY Bravest Football Club and the NYPD Finest Football Club.
Both of these teams met in the 30th annual “
Fun
City
Bowl” on May 19th. The game was originally
slated for
St. John’s
University
, but because of the demand for tickets it was moved to Giants
Stadium in
New Jersey
– directly across from Ground Zero.
The game
itself was a penalty filled affair. These were not NFL-tested
veterans on the field. These were cops and firefighters
that played football because they loved the game. But
more importantly, they played to honor their lost brothers.
Lost in the rubble of the
Twin
Towers
, but never forgotten in their hearts. This fact was in
evidence before the game, as the “Bravest” recognized the
surviving family members of the 22 team members out of the 343
firefighters who were lost on September 11th. Group
after group of parents, widows, and children were escorted to
midfield to receive the player’s framed jersey bearing a
plaque inscribed “Forever a hero on our team.” The
NYPD was fortunate not to lose any team members that day, but
they did honor the 23 fellow officers who perished on 9/11.
In the end the
NYPD prevailed 10-0 to record their 9th straight
win over the FDNY, and take a 21-9 lead in the series, but
none of that mattered. What mattered was that they had
come together to raise money for 9/11 charities, and to honor
their brethren.
That is what I
have tried to do recently.
I made a new
roster for Madden 2002. I created the FDNY Bravest and
the NYPD Finest and put them into their own file. I used
the teams that were created by Bly Gilmore on MaddenMania,
which evened up the Maniac and Instigator rosters, and moved
those players onto the FDNY and NYPD rosters. I had
intended to change the names of the players on both teams to
reflect the rosters for the fire and police teams. I was
able to find the actual roster for the FDNY, but I am unable
to fine the roster for the NYPD. I have included the
file for the FDNY, which contains the FDNY names, along with
positions, numbers, height and weight.
If anybody out
there can find the NYPD roster and wants to make the changes,
I invite you to do so. I also ask that if you do find
them, if you could share them with the rest of us who have the
rosters, we would be very grateful. In this way we can
all pay tribute to those men who gave their lives on that
terrible day every time we play with these teams.
I know that is
what I will be doing every time I play with those rosters.
Well
Madden NFL 07 came out recently and I fully intended to pick
up a copy and re-create those rosters again for this new game.
Unfortunately
my finances have not allowed for this as of yet, so I ask all
of you to be patient as I still intend to create the National
Public Safety Football League and have it up on this site.
Speaking
of the league, congratulations have to go out to the Phoenix
Thunder for winning the league championship this year. They
beat the FDNY Bravest 31-26 to take the title.
Now,
as to the amnesty that I had promised everybody, it is granted
– to a point.
I
have been having a problem with vBulletin as of late and I am
unable to make changes in people’s accounts to give them
full access. It also means that new posters have not been
getting an automatic e-mail from the system that tells them
how to activate their account. So I have been moving accounts
manually in order to enable people to post.
The
upshot is that in order to fix all of the problems that we are
having with accounts and so forth, it looks like we will need
to upgrade the forums to the latest version of vBulletin. One
problem, the upgrade costs $125.00 and we have $51.50 in our
account.
So
once again I am going to have to ask you all for help so that
we can fix what is wrong. I hate doing it but unless I sell
five or six Rainbows in the next month and can afford to do it
on my own I don’t see any other alternative.
That
is, unless someone can tell me where Bin Laden is so that I
can collect the reward money.
Speaking
of which, why in the blue hell hasn’t Osama been captured,
tried, convicted and executed for the murders that he put into
motion?
Mr.
President, just how hard is it to find a 6’5” Arab on
dialysis?!?
So
to sum up, here are some numbers related to 9/11 that I found
in my local fishwrap…
People
killed in the attacks of Sept. 11th: 2,973
Number
of nationalities represented among the casualties: 36
Number
of people to stand trial in connection with the attacks: 1
Number
of audio and video messages from Osama since 9/11: 22
Amount
United States
has spent on the “War on Terror”: $437 billion
Amount
U.S.
government has spent on transportation security since 9/11:
$35 billion
Percentage
of those dollars spent on aviation security: 70
Seeing
the head of Osama Bin Laden paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue
on a pike at high noon on the Fourth of July as children slap
the severed head with their shoes: Priceless.
Until
next time…
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