Courtesy | Al_HikesAZ [Creative Commons]

When that sunny September Manhattan morning sky was filled with smoke, we all knew things would never be the same. Every aspect of our lives was affected that day, from finances to security in travel and even sports. But of all the things affected, sports had one of the more influential roles in the healing of our country.

The typical “tough guy” mentality was gone. Athletes’ defenses were down. Everyone was in the same boat and it was not about teams and a ball and a game anymore. It was about joining together with the rest of the country to heal because everyone was hurt that day.

Baseball was the most affected out of all the sports as the tragedy was in the middle of their season; it had the most visible response. The New York Yankees visited their hometown firefighter heroes while the Mets’ Shea Stadium was home base for supplies to bring to Ground Zero. The league came together again on the biggest stage, the World Series, in a unifying conclusion to a traumatic year.

Sports remember victims as America draws together

In those pre-game moments there were no teams; there was one people with one message: “We will never forget.”

President George W. Bush threw the first pitch while the crowd roared with chants of “USA! USA!” and the American flag pulled from the World Trade Center rubble flew overhead.

A city that had been decimated to its core seven weeks prior received a morale boost that could not have been more needed. A sign hung from the upper bleachers, stating what fans were thinking.

“USA fears nobody. Play ball,” it read.

Five months later, the image in New Orleans became iconic. As 87 million people watched, the names of all that had lost their lives on the tragic September morning scrolled across a backdrop in the Louisiana Superdome. The Super Bowl XXXVI Halftime Show was a moving memorial to those who had died and to those who had lost loved ones.

U2 performed their hit song “Where the Streets Have No Names,” a performance capped by lead singer Bono opening up his black jacket to an American flag lining.

Helping Americans move past tragedy

Sports helped America get back up and move on following the attack. Former New York City mayor and 2001 Time Magazine Person of the Year Rudy Giuliani told how baseball and his son’s football games were the only things that could get his mind off the attacks.

"There was something about baseball, which is the American sport. And it's outdoors, and it's in the fall, and it was right in the city that had been brutally attacked. It had a wonderful impact on the morale of the city. It was exactly what they needed to get their eyes up off the ground and looking into the future,” Giuliani said in the HBO documentary “Nine Innings from Ground Zero.”

The call on Americans was for them to get back to their normal lives following the attacks. Just as the movie theatre helped Americans escape during the Depression, sports helped Americans move forward after this tragedy.

Even though the sting was still strong in those weeks and months directly following the worst foreign attack on U.S. soil in American history, the togetherness brought through sports was a much-needed comfort for an aching country. It’s been 11 years now since 2,977 innocent lives were lost, and the country is still healing. But with every year that passes, we take another step as a country towards peace.