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Games return with perspective

The decision by the NFL to skip a week did not come without dispute.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 23, 2001

PHILADELPHIA -- Getting back to playing football is a much-needed escape for some from the sensory overload produced by news agencies in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11.

The nation gained perspective by respectfully stepping back last weekend from its games, whether they were football, baseball, or auto racing. Still, the decisions to postpone sporting events were not made without controversy.

Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde, a native New Yorker, was a lightning rod of sorts for some of the abrasiveness that arose around the issue of whether to play Week 2 of the NFL season.

As a youngster, Testaverde tagged along with his father, a cement mason, to jobs on some of the skyscrapers that make up the Manhattan skyline. The elder Testaverde was involved in the construction of the World Trade Center. The son said the toppling of the twin towers wounded him, and he was public in his refusal to consider playing before NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced the games were off.

"I just think that, you know, those two buildings were a symbol of greatness in America, for what we're able to do," Testaverde said. "And for those buildings to be knocked down, I know it hit a lot of people hard."

Testaverde went into the Jets front office 48 hours after the attacks and told general manager Terry Bradway and coach Herman Edwards that he would not play if the owners decided to go on with the games.

Several teammates joined him -- particularly center Kevin Mawae, the team's player representative, who was outspoken in an NFL Players Association teleconference last week.

Testaverde said at the time that, if the league decided to play, every owner of a team with a road game ought to be made to get on the airplane with the players to fly to the site of the game.

That comment angered Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson.

"I just wanted them to at least know how strong I felt about what has taken place," Testaverde said.

All was solved by the decision not to play, which was greatly influenced by the NFLPA's stance. Now everyone is breathing a sigh of relief because footballs will soon be in the air again.

Testaverde, having visited ground zero a few days earlier, said he felt much better after talking with rescue workers who said they needed football to help take their minds off the grim work that they continue to do.

"I was a strong believer last week in not playing," Testaverde said. "And this week, I believe just the opposite: I feel it's important to get back to playing."

ONE MAN'S OPINION: Columnist T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times says that the NFL appears committed to pushing Super Bowl XXXVI to Feb. 3.

Simers wrote that if the game were to be moved from New Orleans, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena is preferred by the league ahead of Tampa or Miami.

"Moving the game to L.A. excites the NFL, which has been looking for a way to rekindle interest in pro football here," Simers wrote. He did not name sources.

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