Annual game has bigger meaning 20 years after 9/11
Former West Point football player Captain Connor Crehan was a senior at then Bishop Ahr High School in New Jersey when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. He became a member of the first class to enter the service academy after the worldshifting events — though at the time, he didn’t foresee the country being involved in extended conflicts in two countries.
“I was aware of what was going on in the world,” Crehan, whose paternal grandfather also attended the prestigious New York institution, told The Post. “But it didn’t deter me from going to West Point to play Army football. That wasn’t an opportunity I was going to pass up.” Crehan, now a 37-year-old Hoboken resident and cohost of Barstool Sports’ military podcast “Zero Blog Thirty,” played four years as a backup quarterback and on special teams.
He was then deployed to Iraq for a year in 2008 as a platoon leader in the 1st Calvary Division. And every day before he leaves the house, he touches a replica of the plaque that travels with the football team bearing a quote attributed to General George C. Marshall: “I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point Football Player.” Crehan said: “Here I am 15 years after I graduated. And [football] is such a part of West Point life that it never leaves you.”
When the storied Army-Navy game kicks off at Metlife Stadium on Saturday, it be particularly poignant for Crehan and other football alumni. The game marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which shaped the lives of countless service members, including those who played ball at the two academies. It is also the first game since the United States withdrew from Afghanistan in August, effectively ending a large part of the Global War on Terror. Crehan all of those factors and the game’s proximity to Ground Zero will provide a moment of “closure” for him. “The magnitude of the event might be so overwhelming that right now I can’t grasp it or put my arms around it,” he said, as he began to choke up. “It’s inherent in anyone who was deployed, they want to feel like they made a difference. A lot of guys battle every day. You almost feel a hole. It sits with you until you can effectively close the book.” After all, Crehan’s first chapter was written on the gridiron at West Point’s Michie Stadium.
“The reason so many of us found ourselves in Iraq or Afghanistan was because we wanted to play football at West Point or Annapolis and that decision set into motion events that put us in combat,” said Crehan, who added that at kickoff, he will flash to the moment he stepped off the plane in Balad, Iraq, unsure of what was about to unfold.
Major Alex Moore, a former Army offensive lineman who captained the 2002 squad and played in the 2001 game not long after the attacks, acknowledged: “There’s an extra weight this year. It makes me take a little pause and reflect on what our country has been through.”
Deployed twice to Iraq, the 42-year-old recalled the difficult conversation he had with his father, solidifying his funeral plans if he were to perish. While in the desert, he carried his ceremonial coins given to team captains at the Army Navy game, as a physical reminder of the lessons learned on the field — especially those painful ones gleaned from a brutal loss to Navy his senior year. Moore, who now works in defense contracting and serves in the Army Reserve, lost the talismans during his deployments, in which he was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. But the pride is stitched into his very fabric.
“It brings back those images and those feelings taking the field. There’s always those comparisons of football and combat. You have to go out there and do your job and not let the person next to you down,” added Moore.
During his playing days, Moore blocked for quarterback Captain Chad Jenkins, who led Army to a 26-17 win over Navy in 2001.
“This being the 20th anniversary, the magnitude of it really adds that layer but then the final withdrawal from Afghanistan . ... There’s an emotional toll. There’s a grieving,” said Jenkins who lives in Dublin, Ohio, and owns a government contracting business.
This week Jenkins, who became a Ranger and was deployed four times to Iraq, watched a video of highlights from the 2001 game, sent to him by his teammate Omari Thompson, a wide receiver who is now an Army chaplain.
“I watched that entire video, and President Bush being interviewed and there was a bit of somberness. To think 20 years have gone by and the effects of those 20 years and of that specific day, how that dictated the trajectory of so many lives,” he added.
The heft of this matchup between the Black Knights and the Midshipmen isn’t lost on Patriots long snapper and Naval Academy grad Lieutenant Joe Cardona, who said the “location and timing are poignant.” But Saturday will have another special significance for him.
It’s the first game the 29-year-old has been able to attend as a spectator. This year it falls on the Patriots’ bye week, and he’s bringing some New England teammates, including running back Damien Harris, punter Jake Bailey and wide receiver Gunner Olszewski.
“Normally most guys don’t want to do anything football related on a bye week,” Cardona told The Post. “But these guys jumped at the chance. They are excited to show appreciation for everyone [involved].”