Army Football Team Remembers 9/11 with First Responders and Sea of American Flags

The Army football team marked September 11 with a sea of American flags carried not just by members of the team, but by three first responders as well.

The @ArmyWP_Football team takes the field in West Point. pic.twitter.com/BETPzhjHve
— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) September 11, 2021

Here come the Black Knights??#GoArmy | #LastoftheHard pic.twitter.com/ETMGx9rsue
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 11, 2021

It was also the first home game since 2019, as Ryan Gaydos with Fox News reported:

It’s the first game Army is playing in front of all fans since November 2019. The coronavirus pandemic impacted the season keeping fans at home in 2020. The only people the Black Knights played in front of were West Point personnel and the Corps of Cadets.
Last week, Army defeated Georgia State 43-10 to give Jeff Monken his 50th win as Army head coach.

In a piece from Ken McMillan published Friday with the Times Herald-Record, Monken spoke about his memories of that time, from when he was an assistant coach at the Stateboro campus of Georgia Southern University:

Pro and college sports canceled events for most of the next week. Select high school events, even in Section 9, resumed that weekend, including a poignant candlelight ceremony at Washingtonville High School. Monken said it was important to honor the dead, protect the homeland and return life as we knew it prior to the attacks.
“The importance of getting back to normal (was a) sense of message about who we are as a nation, that we're not going to be held hostage by an invisible enemy,’’ Monken said.
Much like the reaction following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, there was a surge in enlistment into the armed services.
“I think that's one of the great things about the spirit of this country,’’ Monken said. “When we feel attacked as a country, we come together and we really want to protect our freedom, our democracy and who we are as a nation.’’

It was Monken’s final season at Georgia Southern and he followed Johnson to Navy for the next six seasons. In 2014, Monken took over the head coaching job at Army. In his 13 years serving at two prestigious military academies, Monken has embraced the warrior spirit of his student-athletes.
“The great thing about our country (is) the resolve and the grit and the toughness that's the backbone of our nation, and there's no better example of that than our military.
“I’m certain that the young men and women that were here at West Point at the time, they were ready to go (to war). And if somebody said, ‘Hey, we're going to go get the people that did this, they would have been the first one standing in line to go do it, and that's what I admire about young men on our team and all the young men and women that attend West Point who have made this commitment to serve. They know what the job description is and they willfully do it. It’s incredible that we've got young men and women that continue to have that spirit to serve. It’s our military, regardless of the branching they volunteered, they said ‘I want to do this.’ … This is where they belong, this is what they’re committed to, so it's just an honor and a privilege to be a part of this institution and to lead this football team.’’

The team's Twitter account also commemorated the anniversary in another tweet earlier in the day.

Here come the Black Knights??#GoArmy | #LastoftheHard pic.twitter.com/ETMGx9rsue
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 11, 2021

Army went on to beat Western Kentucky, 38-35, giving them a 2-0 season so far.

That's 11-straight Ws at Michie Stadium??

2-0 in 2021?#GoArmy | #LastoftheHard pic.twitter.com/t3tPMftgiQ
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 11, 2021

A story about the Army-Navy football game from December 1, 2001 was featured at an exhibit at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, "Comeback Season: Sports After 9/11." The game reportedly drew more television viewers than any college football game from that decade.