New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens fans set aside their football rivalry and stood in unison to sing the national anthem ahead of their September 11 game, Sunday.
MetLife Stadium, which stands only about ten miles from Ground Zero, rang out with patriotic airs as the Jets kicked off their season home opener.
The Jets brought in NYPD officer Brianna Fernandez to sing the anthem in a no-frills fashion. And after officer Fernandez sang the first few words, she set the mic aside, stepped back, and let the combined crowd of fans take over to finish the anthem.
That is exactly what happened, too, as the whole stadium rang out with voices on the 22nd anniversary of the day that will truly live in infamy, the day Islamic extremists murdered more than 3,000 Americans in the single worse combined series of terror attacks ever perpetrated against America.
Officer Fernandez jumped back in to conclude the song, and the crowd stayed right with her until the last note.
After the anthem ended, the stadium erupted in a chant of “USA, USA.”
It was a stirring example of how Islamic extremists may have put a hurt on tens of thousands of Americans directly and millions indirectly. Still, they did not crush our souls or stop us from being the greatest nation on earth.
America may be politically divided today, but we still stand united in the face of terrorism.
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