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Story of the Year: 9/11 Attack
9/11 Attack on America Put Everything Else in Perspective
CBS.Sportsline.com voters rightfully select September 11 attack on America as “Most Newsworthy Occurrence of the Year.” This event truly put sports and other trivial events in perspective…
The following article is from CBS.Sportsline.com
The events of Sept. 11 undoubtedly affected every American, regardless of your place of residence or occupation.
That is why the 9/11 attacks on America is easily the SportsLine.com User Choice for most newsworthy occurrence of the year.
Everything in the United States was put into perspective, and sports were no different.
The NFL, which played the weekend when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, postponed its games the Sunday after the attacks.
Major League Baseball postponed its games for a week. Most college football teams either postponed or canceled their games that week as well.
With a nation still recovering, President Bush asked Americans to go back to their daily business and for sports to be played -- much like Franklin D. Roosevelt did after Pearl Harbor, with his "green light letter," saying baseball games should be played in 1942.
While the games did go on, so did the reminders of who the true heroes are.
Never before did The Star-Spangled Banner take on more significance. Forget walking around or whispering to your neighbor before games when the song was played.
At baseball stadiums around the country, pre-game ceremonies featured players with firefighters and policemen holding a U.S. flag over the diamond in a salute to those who perished, those who helped in the recovery effort and for the country as a whole.
And for the rest of the season at baseball games, instead of Take Me Out to the Ballgame being played during the seventh-inning stretch, God Bless America was sung.
While fans honored America's heroes in indirect ways, in college football, the military schools were celebrated wherever they went.
The lusty boos usually reserved for opponents were nowhere to be found when Army, Navy or Air Force went on the road after Sept. 11.
Cognizant that the many of those who suit up to play football for those schools would be wearing a different uniform after the season -- a military one -- and perhaps be overseas in combat instead of in a stadium trying for a first down, fans did what they could to make those players -- those soldiers -- feel appreciated.
"They clapped for us when we went on the field in Toledo," Navy coach Rick Lantz said. "When we got off the bus in Notre Dame, there was a line of people waiting to clap for us ... not because we are Navy football, but because we are Navy."
Unfortunately, death was not confined to the attacks of Sept. 11. On Feb. 18, auto racing legend Dale Earnhardt was killed at the Daytona 500, a tragedy that finished second among voters for most newsworthy occurrence.
Earnhardt certainly wasn't the first driver to be killed while racing, but his death shook more than the auto racing world, because his name was familiar to even those who didn't follow the sport. His loss has since gone a long way toward making NASCAR safer for its drivers.
Picked third as the most newsworthy event of 2001 was Barry Bonds' chase -- and subsequent breaking -- of baseball's home run record.
Following Bonds' home run pace became as common as checking the daily weather. It wasn't as captivating as the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa chase in 1998, but it gave us a nice distraction from other matters.
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