NFL opens 2026 season with 9/11 tribute; Pearl Jam's McCready delivers unconventional anthem

Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks reshaped the American story, the NFL paused its opening night to hold the weight of that memory. In Seattle, a city with its own distinct voice, the commemoration took shape through silence, the language of hands, and an electric guitar that bent the national anthem into something personal and unscripted. The presence of first responders who had once traveled east to help carry the burden of grief gave the ceremony its deepest resonance — a reminder that anniversaries are not merely about the past, but about the people still living inside it.