Chairman Woody Johnson and Vice Chairman Christopher Johnson led a Jets contingent to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan this week, days before the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Five current players walked the Memorial Pools with them. So did the quarterback who, 25 years ago, told his head coach he would not play that Sunday.
The Jets marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with a visit to the Memorial and Museum, a $250,000 donation, and a Tunnel to Towers honor for Woody Johnson. Vinny Testaverde, who led the 2001 team in refusing to play that week, joined them at Ground Zero.
Who went to Ground Zero for the Jets?
Five players made the trip: Geno Smith, linebacker Demario Davis, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, defensive tackle Harrison Phillips and punter Austin McNamara. Three of them were among the group the Jets named six captains for 2026 last week, which is not an accident of scheduling so much as a reflection of who the locker room sends.
Testaverde, the Brooklyn-born former Jets quarterback and Long Island native, attended as well.
What did the museum tour show them?
Cliff Chanin, the museum executive vice president and director, led the group. The tour began at the Memorial Pools, where the names of 2,983 people killed in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed on bronze parapets, and ended in an exhibit examining the service the attacks inspired.
The group heard from FDNY lieutenant James Dowdell, whose father, FDNY Lieutenant Kevin Dowdell, was sent from Queens to the North Tower and then redirected to the South Tower. Nine members of his company were working that day. All nine were killed when the tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m.
Dowdell also told them about his brother Patrick, who had been rejected by West Point and was working on a new application with his father the weekend before the attacks. He reapplied after his father was killed and entered the first class admitted after 9/11, later serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kevin Dowdell’s helmet and Patrick’s West Point hat are both part of In Their Honor: 25 Years of 9/11-Inspired Service, the exhibit opening to the public on September 12.
Why did the Jets refuse to play the week after 9/11?
Because their quarterback decided first and the team followed. Testaverde was in the training room at the Hofstra facility on a players’ day off, about 15 miles from Manhattan, when the first plane hit. He watched the second aircraft close on the South Tower on a television screen.
He did not sleep that night. The next morning he met with first-year head coach Herman Edwards and general manager Terry Bradway and told them he would not play that Sunday in Oakland. In his account, he offered them the alternatives plainly: fine him, bench him, or cut him.
The vote that followed was unanimous. Woody Johnson backed the players and told the league the Jets would take a forfeit rather than play, an outcome that had no modern precedent. Jets center Kevin Mawae and Giants defensive end Michael Strahan pressed the same case on a call of player representatives. On September 13, commissioner Paul Tagliabue postponed all Week 2 games.
What is Vinny Testaverde’s piece of granite?
It is a fragment he picked up off the ground at Ground Zero. NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik had asked him to visit rescue workers, and Testaverde went — to a site his own father had helped build. Al Testaverde was a cement mason who worked on the World Trade Center and took his son along on summer jobs.
He kept the granite in his locker, then took it home, cracked it into three pieces and gave one to each of his children. When the NFL resumed on September 23 and the Jets won 10-3 in New England, Testaverde saw posters of police officers and firefighters killed on 9/11 in the visiting locker room. One name was Ronnie Kloepfer, his former high school teammate at Sewanhaka.
That 2001 team occupies an unusual place in New York Jets history — remembered less for its record than for a week it chose not to play. Testaverde’s tenure is also a marker in Jets quarterback history.
Why is Woody Johnson receiving the Let Us Do Good Award?
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is honoring him at its December gala for twelve years of support. Chairman and CEO Frank Siller said the partnership has put six catastrophically injured veterans into specially adapted smart homes, naming Bryan Dilberian, Adam Keys, Matt Leyva, Aaron Alonso and Scott Nokes among them.
Last month the foundation and the Jets surprised Command Sergeant Major William McElroy, a Purple Heart recipient, with a mortgage-free smart home. Two more will be awarded at Jets games this season.
The foundation was founded in honor of FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller, Frank’s brother, who was off duty when he heard on his scanner that a plane had hit the North Tower. Finding the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel closed, he put 60 pounds of gear on his back and ran through it on foot. Tunnel to Towers is delivering 343 mortgage-free smart homes, one for each FDNY firefighter killed that day.
How many current Jets are too young to remember that day?
Nearly 30 of the 53 players on the active roster were either not born yet or were infants on September 11, 2001. The museum estimates 100 million Americans are now too young to remember it at all, which is precisely why the personal testimony still does the work that a plaque cannot.
Fitzpatrick, 29, grew up in Old Bridge, New Jersey. Phillips, 30, put the generational distance plainly: his parents were the ones who were invested, and what he took from the visit was the surviving families and what they went on to do.
While the players toured the museum, Jets employees packed non-perishable meals at MetLife Stadium as part of 9/11 Day, a national effort that packed 18 million meals.
Frequently asked questions
When is the 25th anniversary of 9/11?
The 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks falls on Friday, September 11, 2026.
Which Jets players visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum?
Quarterback Geno Smith, linebacker Demario Davis, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, defensive tackle Harrison Phillips and punter Austin McNamara made the trip, along with Chairman Woody Johnson, Vice Chairman Christopher Johnson and former quarterback Vinny Testaverde.
Did the Jets play the week after 9/11?
No. Testaverde told his coach and general manager he would not play, the team voted unanimously to sit, and Woody Johnson informed the league the Jets would accept a forfeit. The NFL postponed all Week 2 games on September 13, 2001.
How much did the Jets donate to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum?
The Jets gave $250,000 as part of a combined $1 million contribution with the New York Giants, Washington Commanders and the NFL Foundation.
What is the Tunnel to Towers Let Us Do Good Award?
It is the foundation honor Woody Johnson will receive at its December gala, recognizing twelve years of support that has funded specially adapted smart homes for six catastrophically injured veterans.
When does the new 9/11 exhibit open?
In Their Honor: 25 Years of 9/11-Inspired Service opens to the public at the museum on September 12, 2026.