<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>WASHINGTON -- The weather was gorgeous on the day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. There was warm sunshine and a first nip of autumn cool. Mother Nature was imploring, ''Let's go out and play,'' but nobody wanted to oblige.The Washington Redskins gave it a try. Unsure if their upcoming game would take place as scheduled, they went through the motions of a regular Wednesday practice on their isolated fields a few miles from Dulles International Airport. With little enthusiasm, they ran plays and tossed the ball under a cloudless, perfect blue sky.It was too perfect.''What I remember most is the dead silence at practice,'' long snapper Ethan Albright said. ''Usually the planes are coming in all the time. Airports were shut down, and the practice was just dead quiet. And it was eerie. Everybody was down, and everybody was wondering, 'Hey, what really is going on?'''On Thursday, all pretense of football was stopped. The NFL announced that the weekend's games would be postponed. The Redskins canceled practice. Over the next few days, the players did what they could to lift spirits by visiting the victims from the Pentagon attack.''It was different for us because it happened in our community,'' tackle Jon Jansen said. ''We even went down there and visited people. It's hard to put into words because you still can't believe that it happened, and now it's been five years since it did.''Monday night, on the fifth anniversary of the attacks, the Redskins will host the Minnesota Vikings in the teams' season opener at FedEx Field. It's a big football event, the first game of a rare Monday doubleheader to mark the debut of ''Monday Night Football'' on ESPN after 36 years on ABC. Many eager viewers will be more interested in the quality of announcer Tony Kornheiser's wisecracks than the strategic maneuvers of new Vikings coach Brad Childress.But the league also scheduled the game in Washington to coincide with the anniversary. One hundred eighty-four people were killed at the Pentagon, and they and all the victims will be remembered in a pregame ceremony. More than 90,000 American flags will distributed at the stadium.''We know it's a special day; it's not just a football game,'' Minnesota receiver Travis Taylor said.''They've got all these other aspects of an important moment in everybody's life. It's a day I'll never forget. It's going to be an emotional day, come Monday.''The sports world reassessed itself in the aftermath of the attacks. Linebacker Kevin Mitchell fought tears as he watched a mother and son crying during a reunion with an injured father at a Washington Hospital Center. Cornerback Darrell Green caught himself using the word ''war'' to describe an upcoming game and said he wouldn't do it again. ''God Bless America'' became a standard at baseball games. During every Washington Wizards game, fans stand during a second-half timeout and applaud the wounded veterans in attendance.The ultimate price was paid by Arizona safety Pat Tillman, who left behind a multimillion dollar NFL contract to join the Army Rangers in the fight against terrorism. He died in 2004, a victim of friendly fire in Afghanistan.''Sometimes when I'm involved in football, I feel guilt,'' Washington coach Joe Gibbs said. ''There's so many people fighting around the world to protect us, and we're getting to be in a profession like this, playing pro sports. And I get to coach it, so I'm really thankful we've got people to stand up for us around the world. It makes you realize how fragile everything is.''It's been said that everything changed forever on Sept. 11, 2001, but, five years later, the NFL is essentially the same: a spectacularly popular diversion that inspires extreme passion from millions of fans.Even the language is the same. It didn't take long for ''war'' and ''battle'' and ''life and death'' to be restored to the league's vocabulary. The players mean no disrespect to the soldiers; they've just momentarily lost the sense of perspective they had when they tried to practice on that sunny, quiet day of Sept. 12, 2001.''When players use that kind of language, they're trying to relay importance,'' Albright said. '''This is what we're fighting for, and this is our cause.'''It's not really about life and death. It's a bad analogy. It's not life and death. It's nowhere close to what those guys are doing.''</div>http://www.suntimes.com/output/football/cs...2nflplug10.html
