Week 1 is always an emotional time for players and coaches in the game of football. Months and months of working out in the weight room and on the practice field will finally be put to the test as the games actually start counting on your record. It’s always a special time.
But for Jets head coach Robert Saleh, this year’s Week 1 has even more added meaning. And it all has to do with the date in question.
September 11, 2001. No other words need to be spoken. It is one of the most tragic days in the history of the United States. Not too many people understand the impact of 9/11 more than Saleh.
One of the people that sat in the south tower of the World Trade Center that day? Robert’s brother, David. Fortunately for Robert, David just escaped the tower after the planes crashed into the building.
“It was all slow motion to me,” David told ESPN back in 2021. “I couldn’t even register what was happening.” David told ESPN the events as he was running from the towers reminded him of the movie “Independence Day.”
Robert and his family were understandably extremely worried that they had lost David, trying to reach out to him to no avail.
“Swear to god, you never want to hear your mom’s voice when she thinks you might be dead,” David told ESPN. “Oh boy, just hearing her on the voicemail was horrible.”
Eventually, David was able to call home and let them know he was safe. Robert still had his brother.
Those events helped change the course of Robert’s life. He was working in banking at the time but knew he wanted to coach football. “I have to be on the football field,” Robert told Davis after those events and after his brother was home and safe. A year later, he was an offensive assistant at Michigan State, helping with tight ends.
21 years later, after stops at Michigan State, Central Michigan, Georgia, the Texans, Seahawks, Jaguars and 49ers, Saleh will stand on the sideline as head coach of the New York starting his second season on the 21st anniversary of that emotional, life-altering day. That means so much to Saleh.
“There’s no doubt,” Saleh told AP writer Dennis Waszak. “It’s amplified because it is 9/11 in this city, not so much for me, but for the people who are in the thick of it. Obviously, I know it’s documented about my brother, but I heard stories this week about the cars being at MetLife Stadium (Meadowlands) for months afterward because no one could pick it up and then the Long Island train station and the tragedies that led up to this. I think it’s very personal for a lot of people and I think that passion is felt country wide, not just in New York, but it’s a little bit more important here and you know that tomorrow means a lot more than just a football game to a lot of people like you said in the stands. That’s why I think it’s going to make Sunday pretty cool.”
Sunday is going to be a very emotional day for many folks. No one will ever forget the events of 9/11. Especially Robert Saleh.