Original subtitles

Take one.

The events of 9/11 were devastating for everybody.

It's amazing that it's 25 years ago, 'cause I can still feel it, you know?

I'll never forget. It's, like, seared into my soul.

I heard a plane. The impact was unbelievable.

And then I saw a flame.

I see the towers. We're under attack.

This looks like it is some sort of a concerted effort

to attack the World Trade Center.

I'm getting chills thinking about how terrible that was.

My goodness, I'm getting those chills again.

The entire building...

...has just collapsed, and it is not there anymore.

People start calling, and the TV goes on, and...

it all starts to sink in.

As we came downstairs,

we were just dragging people along with us.

Everyone that rushed down there immediately

and risked their own lives to help others,

those were the true heroes.

My dad loved being a fireman.

He's my hero, for sure.

We were all inspired by everyday people.

After September 11th, players and coaches knew

they had a responsibility to be there for the public.

I wasn't a coach anymore. I was just an American.

You wanted to do something.

Everyone was like, "Okay. Here we go. Now do your job,

and you have to make people smile again and know that we're gonna be okay."

And we looked at our job as this was another responsibility to provide joy.

At the wall! See ya!

Our job was to give people something to cheer for.

And you think, "What can you do?"

And then I was contacted about The Concert for New York.

New York City firefighters, police officers,

tonight is dedicated to you.

I often make fun of, you know, who gives a crap about a play?

But we do care about those things.

And when something like this happens, they matter a lot.

Celebrities, the-the stars of the show,

they came here tonight because they wanted to show us that everything will be fine.

For all of us in sports, music, entertainment,

we all realized that we could all collectively...

help the country heal.

There's no place like New York City.

Even though I grew up in the South and I've lived here on the East Coast

for more than half my life,

it just gets into your soul.

I was born in New York City.

I grew up in Long Island.

It was always a magical time

coming over the Long Island Expressway and seeing Oz.

I grew up in, uh, Greenwich Village.

I love New York. I-I'm, uh...

I mean, I see why people don't. You could not love it too.

I had never thought I would live in New York City.

This was the furthest place from my mind

when it came to where I'm gonna start my football career.

But I was drafted here, and I fell in love with the city.

My dad worked at IBM, and they had some special bus trip to the city.

I remember just falling in love with the smell of the hot-dog cart and the...

Even the exhaust from the subway, I remember. And I just...

All that magic, it was just, uh... It's larger than life.

Good morning, America. I'm Charles Gibson.

I'm Diane Sawyer. And it's Tuesday, September 11th, 2001.

Michael may be back.

Jordan all but announced that he is coming back to play NBA basketball.

Too much rainfall in the Bronx last night, so the Yankees and Red Sox washed out.

On ABC's Monday Night Football,

the Broncos and 11-point winner over the Giants.

On 9/11, I was actually going to vote.

Vote in the primary.

It is primary day. Polls are open.

Lots of races to be decided, including who will run for mayor of New York.

We woke up that morning, my wife and I,

you know, feeling the apartment rattle,

not realizing that that was, uh, one of the planes

on its way to hitting the towers.

We want to tell you what we know as we know it,

but we just got a report in that there's been some sort of explosion

at the World Trade Center in New York City.

At that time, I was living in Montclair, New Jersey,

and I'm looking at this great view of Manhattan,

and the centerpiece of the view were the Twin Towers.

And I'll never forget looking out the window

and I see the first tower is on fire.

We lived in SoHo at the time. Pretty close.

And so I walked down on Charlton Street, actually,

stepped around to 7th Avenue,

and saw this big, burning hole at the World Trade Center.

There is one report

that a plane has hit the World Trade Center.

You know, we didn't know if it was an accident, if it was on purpose.

It was very hard to believe what you were seeing.

We went outside to look over the city and we could see one of the buildings smoking.

And by the time that we were trying to figure out what's going on,

you could hear and feel in your chest the second building get hit.

- It's another one. - Oh, my God.

This looks like it is some sort of a concerted effort

to attack the World Trade Center that is underway.

I don't know everything George Bush knew that morning,

and we do see that look of bewilderment.

What he didn't know for sure is what was going to happen next.

This is a plane crash into the Pentagon.

I was innocently sitting in my office at the Pentagon

when there was a jolting blast on the other side of the building.

There were so many rumors.

We're getting reports of the White House evacuating.

There has been a crash in Pennsylvania.

The flight that went down was United Airlines Flight 93.

The government has now shut down

the entire air traffic system in the United States.

Take two in two, one.

This is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center.

You can see the firemen assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents,

and you can see the two towers, a huge explosion now raining debris on all of us.

We better get out of the way!

I don't care where you were.

You remember where you were.

You remember where you were when you heard or when you saw

the towers go down.

- Everybody out! - Let's go!

The entire building has just collapsed and it is not there anymore.

The whole building has collapsed?

The building has collapsed.

We've all heard the phrase now

that while everyone else is running away in a disaster,

it's the police and the firemen who are running towards it.

It was unbelievable in there.

There's guys still trapped we couldn't get to.

And in that moment on that day, it seared in my mind on how those men

and women ran to the disaster to be there for their fellow man.

I mean we... we go out the door every morning,

us, the NYPD, the Port Authority officers.

There's no guarantee you're going home at the end of the day.

You might have just hugged your kids and your wife for the last time.

You know, call somebody and tell them you love them.

It was an overwhelming feeling of

grief and fear.

There was not much to say about what was going on

'cause no one experienced it before.

Everyone was walking down the streets in silence, so it was very eerie.

It's hard to articulate what the scene was like.

You didn't know if there was more coming or-or what was next.

Oh, no!

Oh, my God.

Both trade towers have now been attacked and destroyed.

It was impossible to imagine that these two magnificent buildings...

...were now not there.

Keep running! It's coming down!

First of all, you felt that life would never be the same, okay?

Once 9/11 hit.

The landscape of New York City has just been changed.

And one has to assume that thousands of lives

have been extinguished.

You'll be all right.

New York was such a colossal loss of life.

But the loss of life in the Pentagon was also personal and horrific

for every person there.

We were a little bit forgotten at that time,

and-and in some ways apologetic, like, "No, no, no, we're fine, we're fine here,

everybody's fine," because of the massive loss in New York.

We're talking about massive casualties.

- Hey, Dallas. - Go ahead.

That guy hit the Pentagon.

- United 93, it hit the ground. - Yes.

Diane, just exactly where are you?

We're about four and a half blocks from Ground Zero.

I just picked up this sea of financial documents.

The analysis of someone's budget, and then there's an analysis

of an insurance filing, and you just keep thinking how important all of these seemed

to someone 24 hours ago.

And I just thought we lost my brother. I was just sitting there, I was like...

- They didn't know. - You heard dogs barking.

You heard cats meowing because they didn't come home.

There was such hurt. Then you think, what can you do?

The night Broadway reopened.

That was a very communal feeling. I loved it.

I felt that we had more of a responsibility than playing baseball.

I remember a policeman giving me his hat, and I was wearing it.

We're all in this together.

We knew we had to make people smile again. This is why you do this.

People need you now.

Twenty-five years later, we're never gonna stop hurting,

but hopefully we're constantly healing.

One of my brothers was in the building.

So...

I had three brothers that are New York City firemen.

And they were all working on 9/11.

Got a call from my father because, you know, the three of them were down there,

but he hasn't heard if everybody was safe.

Tuesday is our day off in the NFL, so I had an early dentist appointment.

By the time I got in my car, uh, the second plane had hit.

My father called me

and told me that Jimmy was there.

Were standing in the street,

and the-the plane, the first plane came over our heads.

I thought I could have touched it,

it was so close to us, but my lieutenant starts screaming, "Get on the rig!"

He just starts following that plane downtown.

I thought it was gonna be the biggest fall of my career.

I was actually psyched, and I realized how stupid I was.

This way, this way.

I remember we were running into the lobby, so we started heading up.

So I think we got to, like, 27, and the other building came down,

and they say your life flashes in front of you

and it does, completely, in ten seconds.

And my brother Jimmy was in tower one when tower, uh, two fell

and he was running out of tower one when it was falling behind him.

The lieutenant just, she started screaming, "Run!"

And we just dove out the side windows

that were... that were already blown out from the other building coming down.

And we didn't hear from him.

We didn't know, and I just thought we lost my brother.

I was just sitting there. I was like...

We didn't know.

My other brother didn't even put out a fire yet,

and that was his first day on the job, and,

you know, he-he spent hours just looking for my brother Jimmy.

I ended up finding Jimmy, and, uh, this is where it was.

This was the... This was the moment.

I found my brother. Here.

Death, you know, that's how close he was, and there's no words that need to be said.

To have him still alive was, uh, truly amazing.

♪ With arms wide open ♪

I can never fathom what my brothers went through,

but there's many more stories out there.

The Giants retreating to a red-eye back to New York.

As they start the season 0 and 1.

Coming through the terminal, we're going out of that terminal

when those who lost their lives are coming into the terminal to get on those flights.

And kind of shakes you.

Really shakes you

inside.

Because those are some of the final moments for people.

You saw what the passengers on United Flight 93 did, taking over the controls

to down the plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,

avoiding what might have been a far more horrific attack.

They lost their lives, so you wish you could go back

and in that moment change history.

We're going out and they're coming in.

And, yeah, it kind of of played the trick with your mind, and you feel it.

266 people died on four aircraft today,

the two that crashed into the Trade Towers,

the one that crashed into the Pentagon,

uh, and... [clears throat] ...the one that crashed, uh, in Pennsylvania today...

When I got home on 9/11, my son had watched enough of the coverage that

the first thing my son said to me when we got home is, "I'm not flying anymore."

That's the way a child would deal with that.

2001, I'm seven.

I live in a townhouse with my mom in Staten Island.

I was about 14 years old. It was the first day of school.

Eighteen-year-old Merrill worked in the mail room of Lehman Brothers

at Three World Financial, in between the two towers.

Loved cartoons.

Um, Rocky.

Rocky was huge, uh, in the Davidson household.

Flip phones only, you know. Internet was pretty much dial-up.

It was a good time. It was a good time in the world.

I was big on taking hooky days.

September 11th, I was at my house in the Bronx.

I just didn't feel like going to work.

I was in Paterson, New Jersey, at the time.

I remember walking in the homeroom on that first day

and looking up at the TV screen, uh,

and-and the news being on and me being like, "What is that?"

There was no Twitter, there was no, like, "Let me open up an app on my phone

and see what's going on in the... in-in the world."

So the only source of information that I had was the TV.

Because it went in.

If it was a bomb, it would have gone out, and it went in.

My dad was one of the many, uh, firemen that commuted down there just to help.

My dad loved being a fireman.

Um...

Like, he-he loved it.

The hardest part was not knowing if he was okay,

how many more days he was gonna be there.

It was a scary time for a 14-year-old kid.

You know, when you're seven and you're told your dad's not coming back, like,

you kind of get it.

I get it more and more as you get older

when, like, you're doing stuff that you'd want him to be at.

And, um...

He loved Stallone. Everyone should know that.

He loved Stallone and Arnold and Bruce Willis, and, uh...

you know, I-I-I... he's-he's my hero, for sure.

No, because the world changed after September 11th.

So, um, you know, if you were young at that time,

you may not know what the world was like before.

There's adults that are still trying to process what happened.

I was living in an apartment building in New York City.

It was my first apartment in the city.

I didn't realize how many people that I didn't even know

who lived in the building worked at-at the Twin Towers.

And the reason you knew that is that you heard dogs barking,

you heard cats meowing, you heard their pets because they didn't come home.

And that was really hard. That was really hard to be, you know,

in that environment and knowing that people that you didn't really know

but you probably saw in the elevator, uh, they didn't make it home.

It was pretty awful.

I lived right by St. Vincent's Hospital, and that was

where they had meant to bring survivors who never showed up.

There are all these doctors and nurses hanging out for hours and hours and

no trucks pulling up, no ambulances.

So that was scary.

We are a nation now on high alert, not just militarily, but psychologically.

Shaken on every level.

Early morning of the 12th, packed up some stuff, went down to, uh, Ground Zero

and just began working, whatever we could do.

We're trying.

It's too...

It's too... It's too much. The rubbles is too much.

First responders are those who wore the uniform and the patch and the badge.

Um, would never disrespect them.

The unions, the trades that went to Ground Zero, were responders.

You needed plumbers to turn off water. You needed electricians to get power up

so we can work at night and get lights up.

We needed carpenters to build bridges.

We needed those who can operate heavy machinery.

It gave me an appreciation for anonymous individuals performing

daily functionality for the rest of us.

It's like in The Matrix, when all of a sudden Neo can see the zeros and ones.

It's... You can see kind of what holds this thing together, what's the fabric.

We ate there, we slept there, we cried there, we worked there,

we went to the bathroom there.

You could be working on the pile

on one end, and you couldn't even see where it ended.

You know, it was everywhere.

We will still conduct ourselves as a rescue effort

as well as a recovery effort.

But we don't have any substantial amount of hope that we can offer to anyone

that we're going to be able to find anyone alive.

You watch shows now like these zombie dystopian shows where they put up...

there's on a fence, and everybody's pictures are up on the fence

of the people that are missing and all those, and it's sort of a-a trope.

But that's what downtown Manhattan was.

It felt dystopian, and there was a certain vertigo to it

that you didn't feel you were on-on solid ground.

Where we live, in Monmouth County,

that was the hardest-hit county in New Jersey.

All of our friends and neighbors who commuted and worked in Manhattan,

these were our people.

But whether it was your friends and neighbors or on a grander scale,

strangers that you would eventually meet, 9/12 was one of the most beautiful days

when the world came together and said, "We are one."

The National Football League is deliberating what to do

with week-two games scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

You're going to tell us that we have to play, well, then,

we're not going to be there.

I'm hopeful that you can laugh and also be moved and, um, be together.

There were lots of tears in the audience.

Just being in the city for those few days afterwards,

we were so confused and it was such an upsetting time and so devastating.

Everybody just was trying so hard to do whatever they could to help,

and nothing else really mattered.

Broadway shows were canceled.

Times Square today was virtually empty.

And for the first time in my life, sports didn't really matter.

Sports is an afterthought. We fully appreciate that.

We know that you do as well. Still, there is news to report tonight.

All Major League Baseball games have been postponed tonight.

It is the first time in 56 years that baseball has postponed

all Major League games for a reason other than a work stoppage.

Baseball, to its credit, understood right away what it needed to do.

I think other sports, the NFL just comes to mind, weren't quite as immediate.

The National Football League is deliberating what to do

with week-two games scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

Some said that with the owners and the commissioner and everyone else,

they're going to huddle up and decide on Thursday.

And I said, "What's the decision?"

People in this locker room have neighbors who are missing, um, you know,

our-our-our children's friends in schools don't have dads and moms anymore.

We had heard that the Jets were planning on not playing

regardless of what the decision was coming down to,

and there was a lot of discussion in our locker room about doing the same thing.

We didn't want to play football. We didn't care about football.

How can I focus on playing when I'm seeing what's happened

just right there on our doorstep?

I think New York City and the country needs to be behind everybody

with the effort of trying to save as many people as possible

and trying to get the city back on its feet.

There were some cities that, "Yeah, we'll play."

I don't think they really understood and felt it

as much as you may have felt if you were in New York, if you were in DC,

if you were in some of these other areas, but we were adamant, like, okay.

Um, we voted no, and a lot of teams just said, "Hey, if they say no, we say no."

We're not going to be there.

You have two New York teams who I really gained a lot of respect for

saying, "We weren't going to play."

For the first time in its history,

the NFL has canceled all of its games this weekend.

And because of the push of two players who played in New York,

Michael Strahan and Kevin Mawae loved New York

and cared about what New York was going through.

They made it a point to make sure there would be no football that week,

which I think was genuinely heroic on their part.

I can't imagine the horror that people have gone through.

I can't imagine the horror that the families

who are looking for their loved ones are going through right now.

As much as we may be caught up in the emotions of the moment,

in the fear of the moment,

there has to be some way of returning to some kind of normal life.

Tonight, Broadway reopened.

It's kind of astonishing that two days after 9/11,

when it was a war zone in New York,

that the show came back up in two days.

I mean, it was great for the city, I think,

and it was great for us because we suddenly had, like, something...

a little teeny thing we felt like we could do.

Let's come and do this play.

The Producers started in April of 2001,

and that was the centerpiece show for Broadway.

This is the big hit.

The Producers, you know, when it opened, it was like, people were crazy for it.

It's the show everyone's buzzing about.

Everything about the show is sensational.

To get a ticket was very hard.

Those tickets are going for a hundred bucks a pop.

A hundred bucks a pop, and that's the list price.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Wipe that smile off your face.

This is serious business, Bloom.

We were in some ways the symbol for Broadway.

But 9/11 happened, and we were all told to come to the theater,

the whole cast and the crew,

we all sat in the auditorium and on the stage.

Our producer, Rocco Landesman,

said all the producers had been called by the mayor and told,

"You have to go back on right away."

If you were planning to come to New York, come here now.

Come to enjoy Broadway.

It was scary to get to Times Square and do this play.

You know, even getting to Times Square, going through checkpoints,

there were police.

I remember you had to bring a piece of mail with your address on it,

but we made it to the theater, and God bless the 200 or so people

who said, "[bleep]. I'll go see, uh... I'm gonna go see a musical comedy."

It feels like the right place to be.

I mean, the arts are what supports our spirits in times like this.

You've got to go out tonight and make people laugh.

Is that gonna be hard?

Um, I'm hopeful that you can laugh and also be moved and, um, be together.

They came, and we thought, "Will they laugh at anything?"

But they did, I think.

I'm fine.

It was a wonderful night, that first night back.

Wonderful for us and, I think, for the people there.

Bringing this show that was pure happiness back to the stage quickly...

We were all holding in all this anger, emotion, fear.

It was this

release.

We had been told to sing "God Bless America" at the curtain call.

Which I did not know the lyrics of,

so I spent a lot of the day trying to make sure I wouldn't forget.

You know, we're all lined up on the stage, and we sang "God Bless America,"

and the audience sang too.

And I remember there were lots of tears in the audience.

And probably on stage too.

That was a very communal feeling.

Like, I loved it.

I want you all to know.

Louder!

I want you all to know the nation sends its love.

Thank you for your hard work.

Thank you for making the nation proud.

And may God bless America.

Looking at President Bush's speech,

there's, like, some national pride in that.

It was like, "Yeah, we're gonna come back from this.

We're gonna be resilient. We're gonna fight."

And it did make you want to be involved.

It made us want to get involved.

The Giants' practice bubble

has become a staging area for disaster relief.

Washington players stocked with Redskins paraphernalia

visited victims at Washington Hospital Center's burn unit,

intensive care unit, and MedStar.

After September 11th, players and coaches absolutely knew

that they had a platform and a responsibility

to be there for the public,

and I think in so many ways really did help heal people.

The Steelers, Friday, were in Somerset, Pennsylvania,

80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh

at a memorial service for those who perished

in the crash of United Flight 93 in nearby Shanksville, PA.

The Steelers certainly are heroes on the field,

but somewhere in that field lay some true heroes.

For me, it was very simple.

I took the coach's hat off when this happened.

I wasn't a coach anymore.

I was just an American.

And as an American, you wanted to do something.

What were we gonna do? You know, sit at home?

No, we wanted to collectively get together

and offer whatever kind of assistance that we could at Ground Zero.

We just wanted to be there to show them that there are people out there

who appreciate them most of all

because they're doing something that we weren't capable of doing.

That's the biggest show that we wanted to give them was a show of respect.

That trip to the armory, I was a little sensitive about going in

'cause this is where family members were waiting for results from DNA.

Uh, results about their loved ones.

I was there, but I don't think I was emotionally ready to go inside

because I'm seeing the scene outside, where people have posters and signs

and looking for loved ones, and they're completely crushed.

You know, I-I didn't know what to say. I wouldn't know what to do.

And Bernie Williams, and I'll never forget this...

Bernie Williams went up to this one woman and looked at her.

He says, "I don't know what to say, but you look like you need a hug."

Members of other families came over,

and they had these photos of their loved ones

wearing, like, a Yankee cap or a Yankee T-shirt,

and it was at that point that I felt that,

you know, we had more of a responsibility than playing baseball.

The loss and the grief of that day,

you have to adjust back to what really is an overused phrase, which is "new normal,"

but it was a new normal.

You can go to work, but you cannot get that horror out of your head.

Millions of Americans mourned and prayed.

And tomorrow we go back to work.

For the first time since the terrorist attacks,

Major League Baseball resumed last night,

so we sent Robin Roberts out to Pittsburgh.

The Mets were playing the Pirates out there,

a game that was supposed to be played in New York,

but Shea Stadium is still being used as a staging area.

I've never been to a sporting event that was so somber.

Even though there was a postponement,

it was so soon after 9/11 and to be in Pittsburgh

and knowing that one of the planes went down not far from there.

One of the hijacked planes crashed just 80 miles from here in a field.

And I think that really was on the minds of a lot of people.

I was gonna be with people to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" tonight,

and I needed to do that.

It's such a fine line that we walk,

because you want to honor those that were fallen, that were killed.

But also you want to honor them by living your life to the fullest in their memory.

USA! USA!

I don't know about you.

But as for me, the question has already been answered.

Should we be here?

Yes.

We had all been trying to process everything that had happened

for that week or so, and it felt unbearable,

like if I don't lance this, uh, you know,

I-I will... I will burst.

A sober and visibly shaken David Letterman

was the first of the late-night hosts to return to the airwaves.

The first person to calm me down was David Letterman.

He said there's only one requirement of all of us, and that is to be

- courageous. - ...courageous.

Because courage, as you might know, defines all other human behavior.

And he also said, "Pretending to be

- courageous"-- - ...courageous

- is just as good as-as the real thing. - ...the real thing.

That really stuck with me

because I don't think these first responders

and these firefighters and people that showed up

thought about, "I'm going to be courageous."

They just were.

Obviously, Letterman's return was the big one.

It was sort of that feeling of like, "Well, if Daddy is gonna come home,

I guess... I guess the rest of us... You know, it's-it's probably okay."

When I was thinking about what we would do on the first show back,

I cannot stress enough how much of it was just about caretaking.

There's no other way, really, to start the show than to ask you at home

the question that we asked the audience here tonight, and that is, "Are you okay?"

He was the one who gave us permission, Jon Stewart, at that moment,

to go forward,

but with a deep understanding of what had just happened.

The main reason that I wanted to speak tonight

is I wanted to tell you why I grieve...

...but why I don't despair.

You're still left dealing with your own emotions...

I'm sorry.

...and if you just stick to the specificity

of your own upset, fear, and resilience, those things,

that if-if you can find a way to express that honestly,

that maybe there'll be some value in that.

Any fool can blow something up, but to see these guys,

these firefighters, these policemen, literally with buckets, rebuilding,

that's extraordinary.

Jon Stewart that night, he had the perfect tone.

It was healing with responsibility.

In many ways, it's the same thing George Bush was trying to do

in his own very different way.

My fellow citizens.

For the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself

the state of our union, and it is strong.

Our president, I felt what he was feeling,

and I wanted to be a lieutenant in his army.

He knew that baseball needed to be played again,

and it needed to be played in New York.

There are bigger things than baseball,

but, um, even though it may not be much,

baseball is a way to try to help.

You're seeing the Braves and the New York Mets, archrivals,

kind of salute the people of New York,

and there was a camaraderie that existed that was very uncomfortable for Met fans

because we have to despise these people.

And you sort of figured the game would be sort of ancillary,

but this baseball game,

it was a game filled with all the grand emotions

that is the best of sport,

including the kind of hero moment that you almost never get to see.

It was a big time in the game.

And here's the man the Mets want up in this spot,

down a run late in the game.

When Mike hit that ball, it was the loudest home run I've ever heard.

It was just a spectacular sound.

And it's in deep to left center.

Andruw Jones on the run. This one has a chance.

Home run!

Mike Piazza and the Mets lead 3-2.

You saw an explosion of emotion from the stadium

that was a catharsis that can only occur through unexpected exploit.

A two-run home run, and this place exploded.

In these tragedies, something gets muted.

It's like when a TV goes from color to black-and-white.

Like, there's this little switch that goes off

that takes you into this weird gray scale,

and when Piazza hit that ball,

it was like that scene in The Wizard of Oz where it all goes into Technicolor again.

That's just what it felt like. It was that black-and-white movie...

...that all of a sudden got light.

And part of the recovery is reminding ourselves

that we still possess the totality of our humanity.

Why is baseball back?

Those firefighters smiling because of a baseball game in Flushing.

So many celebrities were leaving New York. McCartney stuck around.

It was shortly before the concert that he curated at Madison Square Garden.

Being on Saturday Night Live, we were all just kind of nervous

and looking around, like, "What do we do?"

We're entertainers, and our biggest job

is to try to take the world's mind away from certain daily routines.

Sports always has seemed to find a way to transcend any tragedy.

For us, it was hockey. It was the Rangers. It was Mark.

All of us were struggling for the right words,

and maybe what we had needed was the right sounds.

The Who, when they're singing "I Won't Get Fooled Again,"

Madison Square Garden was shaking.

It was shaking.

This was a moment for all of the police, fire, emergency workers

to let their hair down.

I've worked in entertainment journalism for 45 years,

and at every moment in those 45 years,

whoever the most famous person in the room was was a big deal.

After 9/11, if you were famous, you didn't matter.

There was only one sort of important person:

a rescuer, a first responder, or a victim and a victim's family.

Joel Gallen, who had been my, uh, executive producer at MTV

for a good while,

called me up and said that this telethon was coming together.

They were going to have musicians play music

and actors read accounts of heroism

by firefighters, police officers, ordinary civilians.

The idea was for it not to be about the celebrities,

but to be about the stories they were telling.

He arrived at Ground Zero before the towers fell,

as fires raged around him.

Will Smith and Muhammad Ali were paired, and, you know, also spoke.

This man might be the most famous person in the world.

He's one of the greatest heroes of our time.

And he is a Muslim.

Will explained how, you know, there was no way that we could allow

any kind of discrimination against Muslim people.

And then Ali began to speak.

Ali came through in a way that was powerful

and in a way a little unexpected.

Music was part of the unifier.

Bruce Springsteen did a song that almost no one had heard at that point

called "My City of Ruins."

♪ My city of ruins ♪

It was done in a somber way.

He had a backup choir that was enormously powerful.

♪ Come on, rise up ♪

♪ Come on, rise up ♪

He was able to encapsulate the pain that we were all feeling,

but the hopefulness of-of what may come.

♪ Come on, rise up ♪

Bon Jovi doing "Livin' on a Prayer" was a suitably powerful moment.

♪ We've got each other And that's a lot for love ♪

"We got each other, and that's a lot." That's what it is, right?

In that moment in time, when you felt helpless,

to have a lyric that is about just simple unity and-and-and faith.

♪ Whoa-oh Livin' on a prayer ♪

All of us were struggling for the right words,

and maybe what we had needed was the right sounds.

This was everybody doing their part to help elevate a people in despair,

and it sounds trivial when you think about it

along the sides of-of-of music and art and those things,

but it wasn't.

The NFL heads back to work. It's good to be back.

The NFL is implementing its tightest security measures

since Super Bowl XXV during the Gulf War.

You could feel tension because you realize

there's so many people in one concentrated area.

It was always a-a scary thought.

While the Giants are in Kansas City, the Jets are in Foxborough.

Both the New York teams were out of town that weekend.

It mattered, obviously, to them, being able to go back into action and play.

There were more American flags, there were more...

it was like everything was like, "Wow."

Patriot right guard Joe Andruzzi's thoughts

certainly involved his brothers, Billy, Jimmy and Mark,

who are all New York City firefighters, all honorary captains, for today's game.

You know, probably the most butterflies I had in my belly that day

was me running out there.

The cheering of the crowd was pretty amazing,

especially when they introduced my brothers who were out there

and, you know, representing for what they stood for.

They represent not only New York City,

but also all of America today.

They wore their uniforms, and the-the chills,

you know, knowing that they stood out there for not themselves,

they stood out there for what they did as a job,

and that's, I think, when people learned that they risked their lives every day.

You kind of get a little timid. You're like, "This is overwhelming."

And then for some reason, I just took my helmet off and I raised it up,

and then the whole crowd went bananas.

You felt the vibration of the screams through your body.

It was crazy.

It was an interesting time because you did see so much patriotism around the country

in support of what was happening in New York.

We're entertainers, and our biggest job is to try to take America's mind

and the world's mind away from certain daily routines,

especially during these times.

Just seeing people come together

and seeing sort of the generosity of spirit.

I don't remember a time ever feeling that kind of unity.

♪ God bless America ♪

We just want to go back to living our life

and showing people, whoever did this, that they're not going to keep us down.

USA! USA! USA!

There was definitely a united sense of purpose,

a pride in being American.

It really did bring us together, didn't it?

Being on Saturday Night Live, we were all just kind of nervous

and looking around like, "What do we do?" and "What is the first step?"

How do you entertain through all this?

When is it okay to talk about this stuff?

They didn't mess with your feelings

about what had happened on 9/11, but they did make you laugh.

Being on Saturday Night Live...

we were all just kind of nervous and looking around, like,

"What do we do," and "What is the first step?"

How do you... how do you entertain through all this?

I think Lorne had a perfect idea to have first responders and firefighters

on stage with the mayor.

The mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani.

I think Mayor Giuliani really eased us back into, "Okay, we're gonna be okay."

But even as we grieve for our loved ones,

it's up to us to face the future with renewed determination.

And then it was Lorne who had the idea of the line of, "Can we be funny?"

Can we be funny?

Lorne Michaels has produced SNL for almost all of its 50 years,

and he will never have written a better joke

than the one that Giuliani delivers at that moment.

Why start now?

And that was-- that was kind of the icebreaker

that everyone was like, "Okay, here we go. Now do your job."

And then the show begins, and SNL is back.

And you begin to understand how comedy will deal with 9/11.

The way to do comedy was to sort of go in through the side door,

and that's what Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon did on Weekend Update.

US officials continue the search for Osama bin Laden.

Reports suggest that bin Laden is most likely hiding out

somewhere remote and barren, where he will not encounter others.

They didn't mess with your feelings about what had happened on 9/11,

but they did make you laugh.

The FBI has begun searching theaters showing the movie Glitter.

And you have to make people smile again and know that we're going to be okay.

No one's gonna take our spirit away.

People need you now. You got to show up.

I think that's what New Yorkers did. You know, Broadway showed up.

Our musicians showed up.

Our athletes showed up.

Two division winners,

the two teams with the best road record in the league last year

and it's all a forgotten footnote when the Saints visit Giants Stadium today,

eight miles away from where the Twin Towers once stood.

We're in New York City, the hardest-hit city with the attacks.

Yesterday, the Giants were brought another step closer

to the events of September 11th.

They invited the children of some of the fallen firefighters and police officers

to join the annual team photo.

And to have these kids come out who were affected by all of this,

it meant the world.

Saying, "Hey, this is bigger than just us as football players.

This is us as a community."

I was doing an interview for GMA.

Now to our GMA cover story with pop sensation Ariana Grande.

She kept saying, I want you to meet my guy, Pete Davidson.

Now, I was a big fan of his at that time, on SNL.

I'd be just as happy if there were no hurricane

and Staten Island just fell into the sea.

Oh...

So he comes in,

he said, "Do you remember 9/11 and the first game back?

You had a kid on your shoulder"...

I was like, "You remember that kid that you put on your shoulders?"

And he goes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

I go, "You're looking at him."

Now, you talk about chills.

- You [bleep] me? Are you [bleep] me? - What?

No, I'm gonna freaking cry now.

- No, that was Pete. - You can't have me crying

up in here, man.

Like, whoa.

Well, he's not the same size he was back then,

- I'll tell you that. - No, he's definitely not.

My grandpa went with me. I remember I was wearing a leather jacket.

I was really into Grease because my grandpa liked musicals,

and I wanted to be John Travolta.

'Cause when I was seven, I was like, "That's what a man is."

Seriously, I'm over here getting chills,

- 'cause I remember that. - And I was like seven or eight,

Pretty sick.

Oh, my God.

When you're a fan of a team and you're going through something

and they deliver for you,

it feels personal.

You know, you're a part of something.

It was really... it was a special moment.

It's even more special now 'cause he's a good friend of mine.

Sports, movies, moments, they're very meaningful.

- Congratulations. - Oh, thank you.

And, you know, we needed that. Well, you need that in life.

You need moments like that.

NHL action Sunday night. Rangers hosting Buffalo.

The Rangers and Sabres uniting to wear New York jerseys

that will be auctioned off to benefit charities of the World Trade Center.

We had the FDNY and NYPD at the game.

There was probably a handful of times in my career over 26 years

that something was more important than that game at that time.

This is one of those games that felt secondary

to acknowledging what these folks had done in the face of adversity.

So I was working that day in the Bronx.

The general manager for the fire department hockey team called

and said the Rangers are inviting us down for the home opener.

"Bring your sticks, bring your gloves, bring your skates and bring your jersey."

I'm like, nobody said anything about bringing our helmets.

It's usually, fire department, you wear your helmet.

I mean, the helmet is a staple of a fireman, right?

That's the only thing that separates you

from other rescue workers, it's the helmet.

There was a picture of Chief Downey in the firehouse, so I made a copy,

put it on the front of my helmet and brought it down,

thinking, "Okay,

if I get a chance, I'm gonna sneak this on the ice and wear it."

Chief Downey was a legend in the fire department.

He was the guy you wanted.

At any tragedy, you wanted Chief Downey there because he was gonna get it done.

He just loved the FDNY.

But his number one passion might have been ice hockey.

So after 9/11, Chief Downey should have been at the command post

for the entire operation.

But he was in the building with his men when the collapse happened.

So I go down to the garden with the helmet

and the picture of Chief Downey.

I snuck it in.

Put it on as we were going out on the ice.

USA! USA!

- And the Rangers started to come out. - Number 11...

- Mark was last. - ...Mark Messier.

Let's go! Let's go!

It just happened that Mark did not have a helmet on,

and on a whim, I just said to my co-captain,

I'm gonna skate over and ask Messier if he'll wear the helmet.

He goes, "What? That's not a good idea."

I thought he was just coming over to shake my hand,

and he got over there, and he did shake my hand,

but then he said, "We would love you to wear Chief Downey's helmet in memory."

He said to me, "They don't know you're doing this, do they?"

And I said, "No." He goes, "Oh, my God, I love it.

And at that point, I'm thinking to myself,

"Am I worthy of of putting that helmet on?"

He goes, "No, no, no, put the helmet on. We would all really appreciate that."

Here's this legendary hockey player who's got six Stanley Cups,

and who could have expected that?

Haven't seen Mark in 25 years.

- Mark. - Hey!

- Oh, my God. Good to see you. - Hi.

- Been a long time. 25 years. - Twenty-five years.

Long time.

Oh, my goodness. Look at this.

We haven't been together in that long.

Seeing him here, it's emotional.

- The chief. - Yeah, great guy.

It turned out to be a moment

that will last forever, and I'm glad to be a part of it.

- I'm glad to represent. - You were the right guy for it.

- Oh, thank you. Thank you. - You were... you know?

I think there are certain people in your life that are great reminders

about the importance of giving back.

Chief Downey was an amazing guy.

I wish he was here. He would have loved meeting you.

Oh, my goodness.

- That would have been amazing. - It would have been amazing.

- Maybe he is over here with us... - Yeah, he is.

- ...in spirit, for sure. - He's looking down for sure.

Absolutely.

Sports always has seemed to find a way to transcend any tragedy.

There's just something about sports, whatever sport, you know?

For us it was hockey, it was the Rangers, it was Mark.

It meant a lot.

Once things got moving again,

there were discussions about, you know, what we were going to do at Rolling Stone.

It seemed a little ridiculous to sit around and talk to somebody

about their new album or whatever when 9/11 had just occurred.

But the artists that I speak to all had plenty of interesting things

to say about that.

One of the most memorable interviews I did around that time was with Paul McCartney.

That was the time when so many celebrities were leaving New York,

whereas McCartney stuck around.

I met him at his office.

And it was a beautiful October afternoon

and we were going to do the interview at a restaurant.

But I remember so distinctly Paul McCartney saying, "Well,

why don't we just walk to the restaurant?

Let's walk and let's talk. Let's do the walk.

We walked, like, three or four blocks up 6th Avenue.

- And it was really just extraordinary. - Thank you.

- What's up, Paul? - Okay, okay.

People just couldn't believe it. They were so happy to see him.

Paul McCartney's here. I can't believe it.

He was just very casual, like, "Hey, great to see you."

- Hey, how are you? - I'm all right, man, yeah.

How are you doing? Are you okay?

- All right. - Sure, all right.

I really feel like McCartney wanted to send a message that he was here.

It was shortly before the concert that he curated at Madison Square Garden.

I always think about that time, and I think about the McCartney lyric,

"Take a sad song and make it better."

I think McCartney felt he needed to do that for New Yorkers.

The Yankees were in the playoffs.

Paul was at the game.

Very American moment for Sir Paul McCartney as a big Yankee fan.

There was such incredible belief in New York, in the Yankees.

As a New Yorker, we all rally around our teams, right?

Sports is like a unifier.

You could be a Dominican 18-year-old kid from the Bronx,

you could be a 46-year-old Italian construction worker from Queens,

but we're both Yankees fans.

And it's only something like baseball that can cure things sometimes.

It was ours.

The Yankees had won three World Series in a row,

but they had a rocky start to the playoffs.

We lose both games at home.

Now I'm packing my bag to go west,

with 9/11 just right there,

where we're all affected by it, it doesn't go away.

Never before

in a best-of-five series has a team lost the first two games at home

and come back to win that series.

So when we got to Oakland,

I just said, "Guys, you need to win one game. Just win one game."

If they lose that game, they go home.

Ready, here's the set and the pitch, swung on,

smashed down the first baseline, base hit in the corner.

Jeremy around second, going to third. Spencer digs it out.

And that was the great Jeter flip play.

They're gonna try to score him.

The ball rolls. Here's the pitch by Jeter.

And he gets the out at the plate!

Derek Jeter with one of the most unbelievable plays you will ever see

by a shortstop.

I always looked at it as I was just doing my job.

If you do your job, you can always bounce back.

I think New Yorkers are built like that, you know?

New Yorkers, even when they're down, they bounce back.

That play that Jeter made sealed it for me.

I was like, "This is it."

We're going all the way to achieve our destiny.

It became more than just playing baseball.

Our job was to bring joy, especially to New York at that time.

Ball game over. Yankees win. The Yankees win!

It was so interesting to watch that series.

It was some joy for the city, but, you know, it was still smoldering downtown,

and there was such hurt.

Then you think, "All right, What can you do?"

And then I was contacted about the concert for New York.

It was 20-something-thousand people there.

Everybody that you could imagine wanted to be there, had to be there.

It was an amazing night.

New Yorkers come together and just showing that fear is not going to stop us.

I remember I was backstage. I saw Billy Crystal and Adam Sandler,

Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi.

Every door was open, every dressing room was open,

Everybody was, you know, hanging out together.

Opening the show was David Bowie with this incredibly haunting version

of "America," the Simon and Garfunkel song.

♪ They've all come to look for America ♪

But then of course he played "Heroes."

♪ We can be heroes just for one day ♪

And that served as a kind of tribute to the firefighters and policemen

and all of the other first responders being honored that night.

We have 6,000 special guests.

That was the single hardest thing I've ever had to do

because you walk out there...

...all I saw were signs.

"Have you seen my father?"

"Have you seen my mother?"

"Have you seen my brother?" "Have you seen my uncle?"

Have you seen, have you seen, have you seen, have you seen?

Well, it's amazing that it was 25 years ago, 'cause I can still feel it.

You know? You can still feel their hurt, you can still feel their pain.

It's something I'll...

...I'll never forget. It's like seared into my soul.

We were sad, but we were also exhilarated because we just felt like,

"Okay, we've been to hell and back again and we're still here,

we're the ones that are here. Okay, let's go."

And we went on as the first band, just all...

♪ This ain't a song For the broken-hearted ♪

The energy of Madison Square Garden-- again, and I'm just, wow...

I just got chills again thinking of it.

Yeah, I remember a policeman giving me his hat

and I was wearing it for a good portion of the song.

We're all in this together.

I remember The Who coming out that night

and just, that was the release valve that we all needed.

When they're singing "I won't get fooled again..."

♪ We don't get fooled again ♪

Madison Square Garden was shaking.

It was shaking.

There was a... [screams] ...when he screamed.

Everyone was screaming.

This was a moment for all of the police, fire, emergency workers

to let their hair down, to be alive, to turn it up again.

And they did. It was glorious.

Thank you very much.

Everybody had one purpose, and that was to show resilience and hope.

Adam Sandler was out there.

♪ Osama says he's tough Osama says he's brave ♪

♪ Then tell me why Osama Is [bleep] in a cave ♪

Usually they have a hard out at the Garden, like 11 o'clock or...

they have to shut it down.

But not that night. That night they just said, "No.

Let's go until, until... let's just put on a show."

Paul, truth be told, really was at the middle of all of this,

and whether it was Paul McCartney

or David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,

they were all Americans that night, they were New Yorkers that night.

We were one people of this one world.

We did it.

You know, there was a moment immediately after 9/11 where people were saying,

"How can you listen to music or go to the theater or any of it?"

That's why we have art.

At moments like that,

you want artists who are going to help us come to terms with the things in our lives

that are the most frightening things.

This is what we do, and what better time to do it than now?

So President Bush is in there,

and I say, "Hey, I hear you're throwing out the first pitch,

and then when I walked out,

I turned around and said, "Don't bounce it."

I said, "'Cause they'll boo you. This is Yankee Stadium."

At Yankee Stadium tonight, game three of the World Series.

At Madison Square Garden, the NBA return of Michael Jordan.

New York City law enforcement is having a very visible show of force.

9/11 changed a lot of paradigms.

What do you got here, boss?

It was a month and a half after the attacks

and at that point, as a nation we want to be protected.

I was at game three.

And as we're approaching the stadium,

there were police and there were gunmen on the roof of the stadium.

Helicopters all over the place.

And I remember you had to go through two metal detectors to get into the stadium.

President Bush was coming to throw out the first pitch.

I remember when the president walked into the locker room,

he had a bulletproof vest on, and he went to warm up.

Jeter took him down in the batting cage and, uh,

I think he made his life miserable.

So President Bush is in there and I say, um, "Yeah, I hear you..."

you know, "You're throwing out the first pitch."

And he says, "You think I should throw it from the mound or in front of the mound?

I said, "No, you gotta throw it from the rubber."

I mean, you know, president of the United States.

And then when I walked out,

I turned around and said, "Don't bounce it."

I said, "'Cause they'll boo you. This is Yankee Stadium."

I've never divulged what came from him, but, uh...

He did look a little nervous though.

Please welcome the president of the United States.

He went out on the field, proud as can be, went to the mound, the top of the mound

and threw a strike.

In that particular moment, whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent,

I don't care what religion you are...

Very nice throw, Mr. President.

...at that moment in time,

President Bush represented us as a country.

And as far as unity, here it is.

You look around, and it shows unity.

There's no more unity in the world right now than right here at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees, down two games to none to the Arizona Diamondbacks,

have Roger Clemens on the mound tonight.

I felt like you almost had a little help that, you know, when I'm out there.

I wasn't the only one on the mound. I really believed that.

We all have angels, and we had a ton of angels with us.

It was Roger pitching game three. He got us on the right track.

We were off and running, and then, uh,

we went through probably the most exciting three games at Yankee Stadium

in postseason that I can ever recall.

Both game four and game five were extraordinary baseball games.

These are both games

where the Yankees were an out away from-from losing.

Fly ball, center field.

It is way back. At the wall.

Home run! Home run! Home run!

Tino Martinez with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

He drills a game-tying two-run home run.

This was, uh, game four,

and you know, everybody was on the edge of their seat. Derek comes up.

Drilled to right field. Going back... On the track. At the wall.

See ya! See ya!

See ya!

A lot of people, I think, have hit walk-off home runs in the World Series

and they've been special for their fan bases,

but the circumstances here were different.

And I'm sure there were people in there that didn't plan on cheering that day

that were cheering and screaming and emotional.

There's a... It's a lot of emotion that was in that stadium.

And on a cool November morning,

Derek Jeter ends a long, thrilling night of baseball.

Really is tough to explain because if you're watching it,

it's like no way that just happened, right?

Okay, move on to the next night, and then it happens again.

That one hit in the air into left field. Do you believe it?

Goodbye. Home run!

They have done it again!

I don't believe it.

It's like it's a higher power that's...

that's helping us out there, is what it seemed like.

The interesting thing is,

when you run into a lot of Yankee fans,

they will mention games three, four and five in that World Series,

but will never mention the outcome.

Diamondbacks win! They're the world champions!

Still, um, bothers me today

that we lost that World Series.

But our job was to give the people something to cheer for.

I think what the Yankees were able to do in those games

by just sort of summoning something deep inside of them

and knowing that those wins weren't just for themselves

but for millions of other people too,

there may be something that was inside of them

that I think everybody was feeling as well.

New York really needed it.

There was gonna be a weight put on the shoulders

of whoever we're gonna perform at this halftime, and it was U2.

They were a great voice in this moment.

Bono opening up his jacket and having an American flag sewn into it.

That was very, very, very powerful.

America watches the spectacle that is the Super Bowl.

Security outside the stadium,

tighter than any American sporting event in history.

The Super Bowl that year was the first Super Bowl I ever went to

as a spectator.

To watch fittingly a team named the Patriots with a... a young quarterback

who no one thought much of at the time.

It was very fitting for the whole year.

Pats 14-point underdogs.

We were a bunch of nobodies.

But as my brother Billy told me prior to the game,

he goes, "Yeah, it's destiny. You're a red, white and blue team."

They are American colors, red, white and blue.

The Patriot.

It was just... it was like a-a script that was written

that they were supposed to win.

I remember that ball going through the uprights and winning that game.

The Patriots have won Super Bowl XXXVI.

You know, I wasn't thinking about, you know, anything but looking for my family.

I jumped on the field, gave the hugest hug.

I couldn't believe it, and I told him, I said, "I told you, I told you."

Who have you personally dedicated this win to?

My brothers.

The FDNY and everybody out there,

you know, with that Trade Center... the tragedy.

What we were doing as a team was pretty amazing and comforting

and knowing that sports helped people through that and helped people heal.

What was so special is that I have my whole family.

All my boys are there.

I'll never forget watching that game and being inspired as a fan,

and also the U2 halftime show was

insane.

The halftime is a coveted spot.

There was gonna be a weight put on the shoulders of whoever we're gonna perform

at this halftime, and it was U2.

They were a great voice in this moment.

You know how sometimes these halftime shows are great on television,

but they're not great in the house?

This was unbelievable.

And then they did "Where the Streets Have No Name."

♪ Where the streets have no name ♪

And on the screen behind them is this roll of victims of 9/11.

♪ Where the streets have no name ♪

And I remember so well Bono opening up his jacket

and having an American flag sewn into it.

That was very, very, very powerful.

That was an amazing halftime show. It really was.

Yeah, they had the names going.

I'm just trying to find names that... of everyone that we knew.

It capsulized what so many people's takeaway from 9/11 would be,

which was how many people lost their lives.

I mean, it's a tragedy that it continues to unfold.

We lost more people post 9/11 than we lost during 9/11.

I'm retired now, and we get called down every year

to do our, um, 9/11 medicals.

You know, you get a little worried every time you go.

There's people I know that-that, you know, have come down with stuff and...

and unfortunately have perished.

I think we're up to 700 and something firemen, right?

Yeah, yeah, they send us emails every time there's a 9/11 funeral.

Yeah, it's something you think about.

You just don't wanna be, you know, go out that way at least.

But would you do it again?

- Yeah. - You have to.

So many good men, so many good women-- uniform and non-uniform--

have suffered deeply from 9/11.

We were exposed 24-7 to those toxins.

The federal government had the audacity to challenge us and say we weren't sick.

There is one thing that Washington did fail to pass:

the bill to help those firemen and rescue workers

who raced to the scene on 9/11.

People on TV don't necessarily have, uh, a ton of options.

But the one monkey trick we can pull off is,

uh, we can get some cameras focused on something when we need to.

Now you see the, uh, the Senate is filibustering, uh, uh, the bill.

What-What's going through your mind

as you're watching this process go down?

Uh, we're-we're, uh, we're disgusted, we're disappointed, and, uh...

and, uh, unfortunately we're hurt.

We watched The Daily Show

and saw the guys and what he did, and, um...

it moved the needle.

Jon Stewart, like really no one else, he was there as often as he could.

He would not be silenced.

John is the first celebrity

who rolled up his sleeves and got embedded with us.

I welcome everyone to today's hearing on the need

to reauthorize the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

When everybody sat down and Jon went...

Mr. Stewart.

...he delivered nine minutes with dignity and passion and compassion.

Sick and dying,

they brought themselves down here to speak.

Your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity:

time.

What Jon Stewart did came from anger, came from love.

They responded in five seconds.

They did their jobs.

Eighteen years later, do yours.

Anger and love are the most powerful emotions.

Thank you.

When you put them together, embrace the love and do something about it.

And Jon Stewart did that.

Now to a huge victory for 9/11 first responders,

the Senate passing a bill that will permanently fund their health care,

a battle that was championed by Jon Stewart.

The bill is passed.

We hugged and we cried, and I think it was me exhaling

of so much...

...so much pain.

And I think Jon...

...was the only one, uh, who can bring it out of me.

I'm hopeful that today

begins the process of being able to heal without the burden of having to advocate.

I mean, uh, I gained some incredible friendships.

Those same people that I talk about

that kind of are the fabric of what holds us,

kind of tethers us to this world.

But, um, I would certainly give all that back.

If I could have the knowledge that they were just still with the families,

watch the Islanders or...

Jon bled with us. Nobody else bled with us.

Sorry.

You know the expression, "He set the bar high for others to embrace and emulate"?

Jon is the bar.

He's the bar.

People were afraid to go downtown.

People were worried about the air. People were worried about toxicity.

People were worried about, "This doesn't feel right."

All those people died down here.

But the arts are healing.

Hollywood stars are in New York this weekend for a brand new film festival

that actually begins tomorrow night.

In the wake of 9/11, Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro

created the Tribeca Film Festival as a way to restore that part of town, you know,

that had been the site of so much tragedy.

Because of what's happened in September 11th,

so that sort of galvanized everything

and made us feel that this is the time to do it.

It's very important for many reasons.

I think it means a lot for Tribeca just to get people back down here,

'cause for this part of New York, it's been hard.

It was really exciting to see that people embraced it

and let the creative people do what they do

and brought beauty to downtown.

Tribeca Film Festival reflected the renewal, the resilience,

the creative energy that New York was always known for.

It's been amazing. I've seen the whole thing.

And I think leaving the footprints

of the Twin Towers was a great tribute.

You know, there's not a day that I've driven by the Trade Center now...

and not stopped to say a prayer for the fallen.

It's a spectacular place of remembrance.

When you walk past the burnt-out truck...

when you see the wall that held the river back...

when you walk down that staircase that survived...

and then when you leave and you see this...

this amazing city in this amazing part of town flourishing...

then you understand what America is and can be.

It's hard to believe it's been 25 years.

Because in some sense, it is still fresh in my mind. Um...

But how we heal? I mean, we're still healing.

It's a big question: "How has this changed you?"

Oh. 9/11 changed the way I see,

you know, society, life.

I was a very immature 18-year-old.

That made me kind of like zoom out in a way that I had never done before.

It made me a better person.

Because I, too, was one of those that was in New York

and kind of got too busy to make eye contact.

Not after that.

I think the biggest thing that we learned is that it's compassion.

I'd never seen the level of unity that we had during that time.

You know, to think back and to realize that that unity has not survived

the intervening 25 years is-is-is one of the most heartbreaking,

uh, consequences of the 9/11 attacks.

My dad loved being a fireman.

I'm not glad this happened at all,

but he got to go out doing something that he loved with his buddies.

I'm glad he was, uh, with his buddies.

Engine 54, ladder four on 8th Avenue.

That was my neighborhood, and man, I'm so grateful for them

and for everybody that lost their lives and all the families that were affected

uh, by that, you know... ...we'll never forget.

It gave me gratitude...

for the first responders.

It's a selflessness

that goes into being a firefighter that you're doing something for others.

I'm so proud to have been able to represent all the FDNY in that moment...

- Thank you. Thank you. - ...and certainly Chief Downey.

For New York, if we didn't have the Rangers winning,

if we didn't have Messier with Downey's helmet,

if we didn't have, um, Piazza hit that game-winning home run,

how many people were standing, cheering for 20 minutes?

And for what the city was going through, it was a different kind of feeling

that you have that connection, you know?

Yeah.

Whatever gifts anyone has, all of them using their talents

and their skills...

to bring the best of themselves...

then to rise to the occasion

so the country can feel better...

was truly a gift to us all.